LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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SUPERSTITION AND SCIENCE: 



v** 



AN ESSAY. 



BY THE REV. 



S. E. MAITLAKD, D.D. F.E.S. & F.SJL 




LONDON: 

RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE. 

1855. 






LONDON : 

gilbert and rivtngton, printers 
st. John's square. 



CONTENTS. 



SECTION PAGE 

1. Introduction ....... 1 

2. Reichenbach's Ghost Stories .... 7 

3. The Christian Observer on Clairvoyance . .18 

4. Table-Turning and Science 25 

5. The Zoist on Spirit- Rapping . . . .30 

6. Mr. Townshend and Mr. Close on Table-Turning 

and Rapping ...... 43 

7. Credulity .48 

8. Faith and Sight 53 

9. Professor Faraday's Lecture . . . .66 

Note A, on Section 2 85 

B, on Section 3 . . . • . .86 



SUPERSTITION. 



§ 1. INTRODUCTION. 

I do not propose to write a treatise on Super- 
stition, or even to review and compare the 
definitions and disputes to which the word has 
given rise. In the few remarks which I here 
offer respecting it, I take it as popularly used 
and understood — that is, so far as it is under- 
stood — and indeed how far that may be, I 
pretend not to decide. To say the truth, I 
have not found that much was to be gained by 
any enquiry that I could make. Even the 
most popular sources of information are suf- 
ficient to initiate us into a puzzle. If we look 
for the word in Johnson's Dictionary, we find 
no etymological information beyond, "super- 



Z INTRODUCTION. 

stition, Fr. ; superstitio, Lat." This does not 
help an enquirer much ; but perhaps, in the 
hope that modern light may do more for him, 
he turns to Professor Branded " Dictionary of 
Science, Literature, and Art, comprising the 
History, Description, and Scientific Principles 
of every branch of human knowledge." There 
he finds the derivation stated thus, " Lat. su- 
perstitio from super above, sto, / stand: the 
steps of this derivation are extremely obscure." 
One can easily imagine this ; but, if the steps 
were not altogether invisible, it is a matter of 
regret that they are not indicated. Instead of 
that, the derivation is followed by an article of 
some length, almost as obscure as one can 
suppose the steps of derivation to have been. 
It begins by telling us that, " This word, like 
many others, has, in common language, both a 
subjective and objective sense; that is, we 
speak of superstition as a habit in the mind ; 
and we also speak of a particular tenet, or a 
particular observance, as ' a superstition/ &c." 
I am not finding fault with this. I do not 
doubt that the writer was at a loss what to 
say ; and so far I can sympathize with him. 
Several years before the publication of Pro- 
fessor Branded work, I had been asked to 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

write the article on " Superstition" for an ency- 
clopaedia. I did not undertake to do it; but 
the enquiry and reflection to which the pro- 
posal gave rise, while it convinced me that I 
was not qualified for the task, led me to be- 
lieve that nine-tenths of the readers for whom 
the article was to be prepared, derived no clear 
idea from the word, and did not precisely know 
what they meant when they called men or 
things " superstitious." I mean no offence to 
the reader by asking whether, when he calls 
his neighbour cc superstitious/ 5 he really means 
much more than this — that in something which 
has more or less direct or indirect reference to 
religion, that neighbour's belief is more com- 
prehensive^ or his practice more strict, than his 
own ? 

He may, if not correctly, at least pardonably, 
reply, that the man whom he accuses of super- 
stition is, so far as the excess extends, wrong. 
But this is not our question. We may all be 
allowed to think ourselves right, and to hold 
what we consider either as defect or excess in 
others, to be wrong. Atheists, if there are 
any, consider Deists as superstitious. Deists 
think the same of those who believe in divine 
Revelation, Among those who believe in such 
b 2 



INTRODUCTION. 



Revelation some reject Miracles, and think 
those who believe in them superstitious. Some 
are willing to admit past Miracles, but ridicule 
the superstition of those who believe the pos- 
sibility of present or future Miracles. Many 
who profess to believe in Miracles more gene- 
rally, and to think that what has happened 
may happen again, consider it necessary to do 
so under perpetual and earnest protests against 
being supposed to credit superstitious non- 
sense about sorcery, and witchcraft, and ghosts. 
Many who acknowledge that there are good 
and evil spirits in existence, hold it to be weak 
and superstitious to suppose that their agency 
is in any way employed in the providential 
government of the world, and to speak of that 
agency as if it were as much a reality as the 
acting of men among themselves. 

No doubt some evil arises from the use of 
words which depend in so great a measure on 
the character, circumstances, and opinions of 
those who use them ; but it cannot be helped. 
Such words must be used ; and they are intel- 
ligible enough for common purposes, if w r e 
only know what sort of people we are talking 
with. If there is a report of a giant, we must 
learn whether it comes from Lilliput or Brob- 



INTRODUCTION. D 

dignag ; and if we are told that a man is worth 
a million, we must inquire whether he is 
French or English. As it regards superstition, 
I do not know that much positive or practical 
evil arises from the vagueness and uncertainty 
which characterize the word, and leave us in 
doubt respecting the real character and opinions 
of those to whom it is applied. Few persons, I 
suppose, are really much the worse in mind, 
body, or estate, for being thought superstitious 
by their neighbours. As to the matter of fact, 
every man (except those, if there be any such, 
who have renounced all belief in every thing) 
is placed somewhere in the scale of credulity; 
and is looked up at as too high, and down 
upon as too low, by those who are beneath or 
above him in faith, just as he is in the matter 
of learning and money. If we hear that a man 
is learned, we cannot deny it, for who has not 
learned something? but it makes a great dif- 
ference whether the testimony comes from his 
university or a village ale-house — if he is 
rich, whether his neighbours and competitors 
inhabit Finland or Grosvenor-square. And 
with regard to superstition, we may commonly 
judge as to the meaning of the word in any 
particular case, from the general style and 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

character of him who uses it. If a philosopher 
is much excited, and sets up a shout over the 
solution of a difficulty, or the detection of a 
fraud, and glorifies it as a triumph over Super- 
stition, we may suspect — we must not set it 
down for certain, but we may, I say, suspect — 
that he is not only glad to get rid of some- 
thing which he did not wish to believe, but 
that he means indirectly to impugn something 
else w r hich he cannot contrive to disbelieve. 
The panic haste in w r hich a vulgar dread of 
being thought superstitious, or of being driven 
to believe something disagreeable, calls on 
science and philosophy to come to the rescue — 
the prostration in which frighted ignorance 
waits to receive the lesson which it is to turn 
into nonsense by parrot-repetition — the silent 
awe with which it listens to " profane and vain 
babblings, and oppositions of science falsely 
so called" — all this is miserably ridiculous. It 
is something which cannot be estimated, or 
even imagined, by those who, without taking 
the trouble to look into facts, and to use the 
common sense which God has given them, are 
content to sit down, calm and silent, under the 
shameful conviction that they are not scientific, 
and must not pretend to have an opinion, but 



reichenbach's ghost stories. 7 

must just swallow whatever pretenders to 
philosophy may condescend to tell them. But 
let me give an example ; for without some- 
thing of the sort I shall not be believed or 
even understood. 



§ 2. reichenbach's ghost stories. 

A few years ago the Baron von Reichenbach 
published an account of some researches which 
he had made with regard to Magnetism, Elec- 
tricity, Heat, Light, &c. Two English trans- 
lations were published in London; one by 
Professor Gregory of Edinburgh in 1850; the 
other by Dr. Ashburner of London in 1851. 
All that need be said of these Researches here 
is, that in the course of them, the Baron 
found that during the decomposition of animal 
matter, light was evolved, and might be seen 
by persons endowed with a peculiarity of vision 
which rendered them what he called " sensi- 
tives." 

At the close of a section on " Chemical 
Action" the Baron breaks forth; — 

" I now bring forward a useful application of the facts 



8 REICHENBACirS GHOST STORIES. 

already ascertained, which is to me so much the more 
welcome, as it tears up one of the chief roots of superstition, 
that mortal enemy to the progress of human enlightenment 
and liberty x ," 

and, after this flourish of trumpets, he pro- 
ceeds ;- 

" A case which occurred in the garden of the blind Poet 
PfefFel, has been widely circulated by the press, and is well 
known. I shall here mention so much of it as is essential. 
Pfeffel had engaged a young protestant clergyman, of the 
name of Billing, as amanuensis. The blind poet, when he 
took a walk, held Billing's arm, and was led by him. One 
day, as they were walking in the garden, which was at some 
distance from the town, Pfeffel observed, that as often as 
they passed over a certain spot, Billing's arm trembled, and 
the young man became uneasy. He made enquiry as to the 
cause of this, and Billing at last unwillingly confessed, that 
as often as he passed over that spot, he was attacked by 
certain sensations, over which he had no control, and which 
he always experienced where human bodies lay buried. He 
added, that when he came to such places at night, he saw 
strange (Scotice, uncanny) things. PfefFel, with the view of 
curing the young man of his folly, as he supposed it to be, 
went that night with him to the garden. When they ap- 
proached the place in the dark, Billing perceived a feeble 
light, and when nearer, he saw the delicate appearance of a 
fiery ghost-like form hovering in the air over the spot. He 
described it as a female form, with one arm laid across the 
body, the other hanging down, hovering in an upright 



1 Gregory's Trans., p. 123. 



reichenbach's ghost stories. 9 

posture, but without movement, the feet only a few hands- 
breadths above the soil. PfefFel, as the young man would 
not follow him, went up alone to the spot, and struck at 
random all round with his stick. He also ran through the 
spectre, but it neither moved nor changed to Billing's eyes. 
It was as when we strike with a stick through a flame ; the 
form always appeared again in the same shape. Many ex- 
periments were tried during several months ; company was 
brought to the place, but no change occurred ; and the ghost- 
seer adhered to his earnest assertions ; and, in consequence 
of them, to the suspicion that some one lay buried there. At 
last Pfeffel had the place dug up. At a considerable depth, 
they came to a firm layer of white lime, about as long and as 
broad as a grave, tolerably thick ; and on breaking through 
this, the bones of a human being were discovered. It was 
thus ascertained that some one had been buried there, and 
covered with a thick layer of lime, as is usually done in times 
of pestilence, earthquakes, and similar calamities. The bones 
were taken out, the grave filled up, the lime mixed up with 
earth and scattered abroad, and the surface levelled. When 
Billing was now again brought to the place, the appearance 
was no longer visible, and the nocturnal ghost had vanished 
for ever V 

Surely no plain person who wished to judge 
of things by common sense, would consider 
such a story, though it might have been 
"widely circulated by the press," as worthy 
of much attention. A sincere and reverent, 
but not blindly acquiescent, student of phi- 

2 Ibid., p. 124. 



10 REICHENBACR^S GHOST STORIES. 

losophy might perhaps suggest that the Baron 
had been obliged to go to newspapers (if docu- 
ments half a century old should retain that 
name) for a ghost story on which to build 
the "useful application" of his scientific dis- 
coveries — that when he had got it, it was in 
reality a tale resting wholly on the evidence 
of one young man — a tale told by a young 
man who professed to see what nobody else 
could see, to a man who, he knew, could not 
see at all — that it had every appearance of 
trick, and that probably the young amanu- 
ensis should have been horsewhipped for stand- 
ing by to see his befooled and helpless charge 
blindly thrashing away at the ghost. 

All this, and more than this might have been 
said (how truly I do not take upon me to 
determine) as to the alleged facts, merely as 
facts; and it might have been added that, as 
to the science or philosophy, the story is as 
lame as it can be. The Baron tells us that 
when he found that the decomposition of 
animal matter was accompanied by light, he 
wished to make the experiment of bringing 
a highly sensitive person by night to a church- 
yard. He says ; — 

"I thought it possible that they might see, over graves 



reichenbach's ghost stories. 11 

where mouldering bodies lay, something like that which 
Billing had seen. Mile. Reichel had the courage, unusual in 
her sex, to agree to my request. She allowed me, on two 
very dark nights, to take her from the castle of Reisenberg, 
where she was residing with my family, to the cemetery of 
the neighbouring village of Griinzing. The result justified 
my expectation in the fullest measure 3 ." 

Some modern philosophers might talk of 
* suggestion ; ? and say that of course the lady 
saw what she supposed she was to see. I con- 
fess that I have not so much faith in suggestion 
as they have, and as a matter of fact, no such 
explanation is needed. Indeed one can only 
explain the Baron's satisfaction, by supposing 
that he went with a predisposition to have his 
expectation justified, and under an immovable 
conviction that his sensitive would see * some- 
thing like that which Billing had seen;" for, 
even according to his own account, what she 
did see was very different. Billing, the Baron 
has told us, saw a female form with defined 
arms and feet, hovering in the air " a few hands- 
breadths above the soil." As to Mile. Reichel 
he goes on to say, " she saw very soon a light, 
and perceived on one of the grave mounds, 
along its whole extent, a delicate, fiery, as it 

3 Ibid., p. 126. 



were, a breathing flame. The same thing was 
seen on another grave in a less degree. But 
she met with neither witches nor ghosts ; she 
described the flame as playing [Dr. Ashburner 
has f waving*] over the graves in the form of a 
luminous vapour, from one to two spans in 
height." 

Certainly this was remarkably different from 
Billing's female figure, which was, as we have 
seen, " without movement," and had " the 
feet" a few hand-breadths above the soil. The 
Baron however proceeds : — 

" Sometime afterwards I took her to two great cemeteries 
near Vienna, where several interments occur daily, and the 
grave mounds lie all about in thousands. Here she saw 
numerous graves, which exhibited the lights above described. 
Wherever she looked, she saw masses of fire lying about. 
But it was chiefly seen over all new graves ; while there was 
no appearance of it over very old ones. She described it less 
as a clear flame, than as a dense, vaporous mass of fire, 
holding a middle place between mist and flame. On many 
graves this light was about four feet high, so that, when she 
stood on the grave, it reached to her neck. When she thrust 
her hand into it, it was as if putting it into a dense fiery 
cloud. She betrayed not the slightest uneasiness, as she was 
from her childhood accustomed to such emanations, and had 
seen, in my experiments, similar lights, produced by natural 
means, and made to assume endless varieties of form 4 ." 

4 Ibid., p. 126. 



reichenbach's ghost stories. 13 

The Baron adds in a Postscript that he 
afterwards took five other sensitive persons in 
the dark to cemeteries. cc All of them," he 
says, u have confirmed literally the statements 
of Mile. Reichel, and have seen the lights over 
all new graves more or less distinctly 5 ." 

Considering that the light is supposed to be 
evolved in the decomposition of animal matter, 
it is natural that those who could see it at all, 
should see it (as the Baron expressly says they 
did) over new graves ; and it is to be observed, 
that Billing professed to see his apparition over 
a spot where, so far as appears, nothing was 
found beside bones covered with a " firm," and 
"tolerably thick" (ziemlich dick), layer of white 
lime. How long the bones had been there, and 
whether if they had been let alone they would 
have flamed up for ever, seems uncertain. 

But it is neither my business, nor my inten- 
tion, to discuss the philosophy, or the facts, of 
this tale, I refer to it only by way of illustra- 
tion. My object is to show how a thing of this 
sort — that is an alleged scientific discovery that 
looks as if it might be turned to some account 
against what they are pleased to call supersti- 

5 Ibid., p. 127. 



14 reichenbach's ghost stories. 

tion — is received and reported by some philo- 
sophers. It is ludicrous to see the Baron 
bringing up such a very lame story, when ac- 
cording to his own account he knew of " thou- 
sands" to choose from, and bringing it up too 
with such a preface. Beside that, however, 
after the long passage containing the account 
of Pfeffel and Billing which I have already 
quoted, he says, — 

u It is hardly necessary to point out to the reader what I 
think of this story, which caused much discussion in Germany, 
because it came to us on the authority of the most trust- 
worthy man alive, and received from Theologians and Psy- 
chologists a thousand frightful interpretations 6 ." 

One cannot but wish that the Baron had 
given us some, if it had been only a score or 
two, of the "frightful interpretations" invented 
by these ingenious and abominable theologians 
and psychologists, but of course that was not 
to be expected. After discussing the chemistry 
of the matter up to the stage of a fiery appear- 
ance, and professing to show how that may 
have been produced, he says, — 

" Ignorance, fear, and superstition, would now give to the 
luminous appearance the form of a human spectre, and supply 



6 Ibid., p. 125. 



15 

it with head, arms, and feet; just as we can fancy, when we 
will, any cloud in the sky to represent a man or a demon." 

The obsequious reader is I presume expected 
to answer^ " Oh ! yes, of course, that is quite 
natural. We can fancy what we please ;" but, 
for my own part, I am not conscious of such 
powers of imagination ; and I suspect that very 
few persons are so unfortunate as to possess 
them — but the Baron proceeds : — 

"The desire to inflict a mortal wound on the monster, 
Superstition, which, from a similar origin, a few centuries 
ago, inflicted on European Society so vast an amount of 
misery ; and by whose influence, not hundreds, but thousands 
of innocent persons died in tortures on the rack and at the 
stake ; — this desire made me wish to make the experiment," 
&c.7 



7 This is Dr. Gregory's translation. Any one who com- 
pares it with the original, will see that he has taken what 
seems to me an unwarrantable liberty with the text of his 
author. At the same time, I do not wonder that he was 
tempted to modify such exaggeration. Dr. Ashburner, more 
correctly says, " when in unhappy trials for witchcraft, not 
hundreds nor thousands but hundreds of thousands of innocent 
persons," &c, p. 176. This is certainly a more faithful ren- 
dering of " wo in unseligen Hexenprocessen nicht Hunderte, 
nicht Tausende, sondern Hunderttausende unschuldiger 
Menschen," &c, p. 124. But neither does justice to the 
Baron's fierce wrath against Superstition, by giving u inflict a 
mortal wound," or " deal a mortal blow," as the translation 
of " in's Gekrose zu treffen." 



16 REICHENBACIl's GHOST STORIES. 

He then proceeds in the words which I have 
already quoted ; and after the " postscript," to 
which I have referred, he again bursts forth : — 

" Thousands of ghost stories will now receive a natural ex- 
planation, and will thus cease to be marvellous. We shall 
even see, that it was not so erroneous or absurd as has been 
supposed, when our old women asserted, as every one knows 
they did, that not every one was privileged to see the spirits 
of the departed wandering over their graves. In fact, it was 
at all times only the sensitive who could see the imponderable 
emanations from the chemical change going on in corpses, 
luminous in the dark. And thus I have, I trust, succeeded 
in tearing down one of the densest veils of darkened igno- 
rance and human error 8 ." 

I quote the version of Professor Gregory, 
who is content to fulfil his office of translator. 
Dr. Ashburner seems to sympathise more in- 
tensely with the Baron on the triumphant 
slaughter of his thousands. He tells us in 
a note, — 

" The glorious Reichenbach has in this treatise done good 
service against the vile demon of Superstition 9 ," &c. 

The philosophers seem to be actually sur- 
prised out of their philosophy. They break 
out as if some scientific Blue-skin had " set 
them at ease" — as if the thousand interpre- 

s P. 127. 9 P. 180. 



reichenbach's ghost stories. 17 

tations of silly theologians as well as the 
thousand superstitions of their silly fol- 
lowers — " omnia noctium occursacula, omnia 
bustorum formidamina, omnia sepulcrorum 
terriculamenta " — were sunk, like Pharaoh and 
his host, in the Red Sea. 

When I heard the shout of triumph, I began 
to consider whether I had ever met with any 
ghost story, or knew of any superstition, which 
was in any way explained, or touched, by the 
Baron's discovery. Giving all possible credit 
to his old, lame, solitary, and suspicious story 
of Billing, and to the Baron's assurance that it 
received from theologians and psychologists a 
thousand frightful interpretations, I could not 
think of any other story which had even as 
much colour of connexion with his researches. 
I wished for information : and I thought that 
the most likely way of obtaining it was to 
apply to the useful and widely circulated 
periodical work entitled " Notes and Queries ;" 
and in a note which appeared in the number 
for July 5th, 1851, after stating the case, I 
said, — 

* I do not question the fact ; my Query is where to find 
the 'thousands of ghost stories' which are explained by it ; 
and, as I suspect that you have some correspondents capable 

C 



18 THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER 

of giving information on such subjects, I shall feel much 
obliged if they will tell me l ." 

Some further details on this point will be 
found in a note 2 : I here merely state that I 
have not been able to get a reference to one 
single story. I do not take upon me to say 
that there are not "thousands" in existence; 
though really if there are, I cannot view the 
explosion of them as a thing which, if it ac- 
tually happened, should set grown gentle- 
men of science a shouting like boys who have 
got a half-holiday. I only say that, having 
used what seems to me to be due diligence, I 
have not been able to find one such story. 

This point (which we may call the vanishing 
point of bouncing assertions) is, however, so 
important, that I must further illustrate it 
by another very similar case. 



§ 3. The Christian Observer on 
clairvoyance. 

More than twenty years ago I had occasion 
to notice the course pursued by the Christian 

1 Vol. iv. p. 5. 2 See Note A. 



ON CLAIRVOYANCE. 19 

Observer, and the doctrine explicitly laid down 
in a pamphlet published by its Editor, as to 
what has been popularly called supernaturalism. 
That doctrine is plainly stated for all future 
times and things. Be those things, and the 
evidence of those things, what they may, " we 
must admit any solution rather than a mi- 
racle 3 ;" but what I have now to notice seems 
to go a step farther. 

The Christian Observer for February 1854 
contained a Review relating to Mesmerism; 
iand as I was then preparing a second edition 
of a pamphlet which I had published on the 
subject some years previously, I read that 
Review. My principal object in publishing 
the pamphlet had been to call the attention of 
educated and thinking persons, who were not 
likely to read, or even to meet with, medical or 
scientific books, to the fact that witnesses — 
living, known, and respected witnesses, who 
might be applied to, and enquired of — wit- 
nesses holding such positions in society as 
those of Lord Ducie, the Hon. Miss Boyle, 
the Hon. Mr. Phipps, Lord Adare, Lord 
Frederick Fitzclarence, and respectable mem- 

3 Eravin, Essay X. p. 246. 

c 2 



20 THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER 

bers of the bar, the medical, and clerical pro- 
fessions — were publicly, and in print, giving or 
sanctioning statements of a very singular na- 
ture, relating to matters of fact ; and to ask 
whether philosophy, or any thing better or 
worse, required us to suppose that they were, 
one and all, either dupes or impostors — 
whether we could suspect collusion, or imagine 
them to be deceived, or trying to deceive, in 
their accounts of facts said to have occurred 
under their own observation — facts, respecting 
which it is satisfactory to examine living wit- 
nesses, but which, as to their nature and kind, 
do not rest on, or require their evidence, valu- 
able as it may be ; having been attested by 
credible testimony before they were born. 

But the Christian Observer makes short 
work of it, and declares that clairvoyance is 
fraud and nothing better. This is a very 
summary way of settling the matter ; but with 
this, I think the Reviewer should, in prudence, 
have stopped. If asked how he knew that 
it was mere fraud, he might have looked mys- 
terious, and said that he had reasons which 
he did not chuse to divulge. But instead of 
this he committed himself to a " test ;" and, 
he tells us, that it is a the best test." Let us 



ON CLAIRVOYANCE. 21 

look at it, bearing in mind that the enquiry 
is not whether clairvoyance is a reality, but 
whether the test proposed by the Reviewer 
is founded in truth. I bring forward the case 
simply with reference to the conduct of those 
w r ho wish to be taken for philosophers, and 
who come forth with great words and alleged 
facts which, when called on, they do not at- 
tempt to support. 

This "best test," which according to the 
Reviewer proves clairvoyance to be fraud and 
nothing better, is that the challenges given to 
clairvoyants to read the numbers of bank 
notes locked up in metal boxes have univers- 
ally failed. Whether this means^ that chal- 
lenges which have been made have failed, from 
not having been accepted by clairvoyants, or 
that the clairvoyants having accepted the chal- 
lenges failed in attempts at performance, I 
do not know. It is not very material; and 
the reader will have the means of judging for 
himself presently. Taking it either way, it 
was sufficient to excite curiosity ; and I wished 
to know more about the bank notes and metal 
boxes. I did not like to be ignorant of a 
matter that, from the off-hand way in which 
its universality was spoken of, might be pre- 



22 THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER 

sumed to be notorious, even among those who 
were but superficially acquainted with the sub- 
ject. I thought it possible that the Reviewer 
(not at all knowing who he might be) would, 
perhaps, if civilly asked, put me in the way 
of finding some authority for his statement. 
At the same time, I was not much surprised 
at not finding the note which I addressed to 
the Editor in any way acknowledged. Cir- 
cumstances occurring which led to my being 
occupied otherwise than with my pamphlet, 
the matter rested for some months ; but not 
hearing, or finding any thing to the purpose, 
still desiring information on the subject, and 
presuming that others might know as much 
as the Reviewer, and be more communicative, 
I took the same course as that which I had 
followed in the matter of Reichenbach, and 
enquired publicly through the medium of 
" Notes and Queries." In the number for July 
1, 1854, the following Query was inserted ; — 

CLAIRVOYANCE. 

If room can be made for the following letter, addressed 
some months ago to the editor of the Christian Observer, it will 
explain itself ; and perhaps some correspondent will he able 
and disposed to give me, either directly cr through your 
pages, the information which it was intended to elicit : 



ON CLAIRVOYANCE. 23 



Gloucester, Feb. 4, 1854. 
Sir, 

In a review relating to mesmerism, in this month's Chris- 
tian Observer, the writer says, with reference to what is 
called clairvoyance, — 

** The best test of this fraud (for it is nothing better) is, 
that of the challenges which have been given to the whole 
class of clairvoyants, to read the numbers upon certain bank 
notes which have been locked up in metal boxes, on the con- 
dition of receiving these notes when so deciphered ; and 
which have universally failed." — P. 133. 

I am endeavouring to collect evidence on the subject ; 
and as his language seems to indicate an acquaintance with 
cases that have not come to my knowledge, I should feel 
much obliged if he would favour me with a list of the chal- 
lenges to which he refers. 

In asking this information respecting what the writer 
speaks of as a notorious matter, I trust I shall not be con- 
sidered as intruding myself on his confidence, or trying to 
penetrate his incognito. I have no wish to do either, but 
merely ask for references to published documents, or such 
a statement of names and dates as may enable me to find 
them. I am, &c, 

Considering the wide circulation of this pe- 
riodical work, I thought it likely that, either 
through its pages, or by direct communication 
(as I gave my name and address) I might 



24 THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER, &C. 

obtain some light on the subject ; but up to 
this moment, I have not in any way learned 
any thing of any bank note having ever been 
locked up in a metal box, or of any bank note 
in any box being offered to any alleged clair- 
voyant, or any body else, either in experiments 
on clairvoyance or for any other purpose. As 
far as I can learn the statement is entirely 
false 4 . How is one to deal with such philo- 
sophers ? It seems as if there were only two 
ways of treating the strange stories which they 
have made up their minds to disbelieve ; at 
least I know not how to suggest a third. 

The first of these is that of simple denial — 
merely to maintain that they are untrue — and 
this, either by coarse, reckless, unsupported 
charges of " fraud," like that of the Christian 
Observer ; or by suggesting some grounds for 
supposing that the parties concerned had no 
senses, or had not the proper use of them, or 
were, somehow or other, intellectually, morally, 
or physically, disqualified from giving evidence 
on plain matters of fact. 

The second is to explain them — and this is a 
course of more difficulty, requiring perhaps no 

4 See Note B. 



TABLE-TURNING AND SCIENCE. 25 

more knowledge, but a great deal more skill, 
and prudence, and plausibility. He who merely 
sticks to the assertion that a story is, and must 
be, false, and that all who believe it are fools, 
will be more likely to get fame and followers — 
at all events will risque less in the attempt — than 
if he undertook to explain, and reason, and 
commit himself to statements respecting facts 
or opinions. 

The Christian Observer furnishes a sufficient 
illustration of the first of these methods 5 let 
us take a specimen of the second. 



§ 4. TABLE-TURNING AND SCIENCE. 

Soon after the phenomenon of Table-turning 
had been talked about in this country, it was 
currently reported that science had explained 
it — that though the unscientific might very 
pardonably be puzzled by phenomena to which 
they were unaccustomed, yet the learned knew 
all about it — it was electricity, or perhaps one 
should say galvanism, or perhaps od force, or 
perhaps all of them, or perhaps they were all 
the same — but that, at all events, the matter 
was to be held, deemed, and taken, as some- 



26 TABLE-TURNING AND SCIENCE. 

thing which had been satisfactorily explained 
by scientific men, on scientific principles. 

Some not very scientific persons were sur- 
prised and suspicious ; but in a very little 
while they were comforted, and restored to 
their self-esteem, by a shot from Professor 
Faraday, which effectually silenced these elec- 
tric batteries. Those who had been suspicious 
made merry when he snubbed the pretenders. 
Every body felt — and, I am sure, no one with 
a stronger sense of personal respect than my- 
self—that if he did not find electricity in any 
place where he might think proper to look for 
it, it was because there was none there. That 
matter was settled. 

But when the Professor came to supply an 
explanation of his own he was less happy. It 
was a pretty little key, but it did not fit the 
lock. However ingenious his illustrative appa- 
ratus might be, the solution itself did not meet 
the facts of the case — or if, to avoid contro- 
versy, it be admitted that it met the facts 
which were known at the time when it was 
invented, subsequent facts soon altered the 
case so far as to render the explanation insuffi- 
cient and unsatisfactory. A curious illustra- 
tion of my meaning may be found in the pam- 



TABLE-TURNING AND SCIENCE. 27 

phlets of Mr. Prichard, a Fellow of the College 
of Surgeons, and, I am informed, an eminent 
and respected practitioner in Leamington. 
This gentleman in the year 1853 published a 
pamphlet entitled, "A few sober words on 
Table-Talk, about Table Spirits/ 5 &c, in which, 
having previously asked ; — 

" Is then the epilepsy of the teething infant possession ? 
Is the epilepsy of gastric irritation possession ? Is the epi- 
lepsy from organic causes possession ? " 

he goes on to say 

"Having stated what Table-Moving is not, let us now 
enquire what it is, and this at once introduces the fourth and 
last question— e Is it the result of an influence proceeding 
from, and perfectly explicable by, the acknowledged laws of 
matter and physiological science ? ' I have no doubt that it 
is so. Professor Faraday has taken some ingenious trouble 
to demonstrate to the public this simple truth, but as in the 
time of Hudibras, so now 

6 The pleasure is as great 
Of being cheated as to cheat.' 

And the public will not readily give up its plaything and its 
pastime." 

Before the end of the year, however, Mr. 
Prichard reissued this pamphlet, with a post- 
script; and while he very honestly, and can- 
didly, allowed all the contents of the first 



28 TABLE-TURNING AND SCIENCE. 

edition to stand unaltered, he prefixed a u Pre- 
face to the Second Edition" beginning; — 

" I have thought it the more candid and proper course to 
republish the foregoing pamphlet, and to append to it the 
Experiments which have entirely put 'hors de combat' the 
agency of either voluntary or involuntary muscular motion, 
which I have therein endeavoured to substantiate as a cause 
for the effects produced." 

Undoubtedly this was the most candid and 
proper course. Mr. Prichard begins the post- 
script, which is dated November 2, 1853, by 
saying, 

" Since the publication of the foregoing pamphlet, facts 
have been placed before my eyes which have conclusively 
proved the fallacy of my solution of the vexed question to 
which my remarks have reference ;" 

and on the first page he adds, 

" I will now state why I became dissatisfied with my im- 
pression that automatic muscular power was the agent used 
in moving matter by contact with the finger ends. In a 
word, then, I witnessed several tables taken off their legs, and, 
by a kind of impulsive force overcoming the force of gravity, 
and mounting into space, the only agent used being the contact 
of the finger ends of six hands placed lightly on the table top, 
and not within three inches of the edge any where." 

Mr. Prichard begins his account of his ex- 
periments thus ; — 



TABLE-TURNING AND SCIENCE. 29 

"Experiment 1. — In the presence of several scientific per- 
sons, the following experiments were tried: several tables 
were made to move, on a stone floor, with great force and 
rapidity, and, no less than ten or twelve times were seen to move 
upwards into space with the fingers placed as I have before 
stated/' 

Whether Mr. Prichard has found anybody 
willing to accept his solution of the mystery I 
do not know 5 ; but it must be remembered 
that he is not quoted by me as an authority for 
any opinion, but only as a credible witness of a 
matter of fact, — of what he calls "the one 
fact of the rising of the table into space by no 
other agency than the finger ends placed upon 
it." p. 18. This is a matter of fact respecting 
which any man of honesty and understanding 
would be capable of forming a judgment, and 
giving trustworthy evidence. It may be hard 
to believe that " several scientific men/' assem- 
bled for the purpose of enquiry, and experi- 
ment, and therefore on their guard against 
deception or mistake, should suppose that they 

5 It lies, if I understand him, in "a new, and, hitherto un- 
recognized law, namely, the disturbance of the atoms of 
matter by the instantaneous transmission of a fluid so power- 
ful and so subtle as that of electricity into its spaces or pores, 
exerting an antagonistic force to that of gravity, will be found 
to be the vis movendi, not only in the instances before us, but 
in many acknowledged operations of nature." — p. 18. 



30 THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 

actually saw several tables " move upwards 
into space" with no assignable reason for such 
a movement — that this illusion, if it was one, 
should have been repeated ten or twelve times 
— that tc on occasion of this last set of expe- 
riments, the table was frequently seen as it 
were to jump from the floor and to descend at 
about the distance of two feet" — but it is like- 
wise hard (I think I may say, as hard) to 
believe that they could concur in imagining 
such a thing if it did not take place, or to 
assign any sufficient reason for their telling 
such a lie. What are we to say in such cases ? 
I quote this one merely for illustration; to 
which purpose it seems to me to be peculiarly 
adapted ; and if it should be proved that Mr. 
Prichard and his friends were all under a delu- 
sion, or that no such persons ever existed, the 
only consequence will be that we must look 
elsewhere for illustration, and shall be at no 
loss to find it. 



§ 5. The Zoist on spirit-rapping. 

Of all the scientific explanations which I have 
seen, that which the Zoist has given of spirit- 



THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 31 

rapping is one of the most remarkable and in- 
structive. Of course it was to be expected that 
a work which had so openly declared against 
" the superstitious and therefore detestable, 
ideas of the existence of goblins, evil spirits, 
and the reality of the mythos of the devil 6 ," 
should be the first in the field, anxious, like 
"the glorious Reichenbach," to inflict a mortal 
wound on the " monster Superstition." The 
Editor appears to have been quite alive to the 
responsibility of his position. He can hardly 
find words to express his feelings. Shocked 
and disgusted he exclaims, "Any thing ap- 
proaching to this imposture in impious auda- 
city we have never witnessed;" and he adds, 
" We have felt it an imperative duty boldly to 
raise our voice in condemnation of this vile and 
unblushing imposture 7 ." 

I am not enquiring w r hether the rapping is, 
or is not an imposture. Let us suppose that it 
is one. Our question is, how does the Zoist 
meet, and explain, and expose it? As I had 
occasion to remark in the case of the Christian 
Observer, the philosopher has incautiously 
gone too far for his own credit. It might be 

6 No. V., p. 43. 7 No. XLI. p. 96. 



32 THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 

very safe to raise his voice in condemnation of 
the thing ; but it was unwise to set about ex- 
planation. It would have been more prudent 
to have "boldly/ 5 and (of course) anonymously, 
denounced every body that had anything to do 
with it, as knaves or fools ; to deny, and carp, 
and cavil, and insinuate, and ridicule. Surely 
Mesmerists have had some example and school- 
ing in such practices ; and if it has not taught 
them to be peaceable, it might have given them 
a lesson in the art of war. Of course they are 
very angry with people who talk about spirits 
at all ; but, on the other hand, some of those 
people are not quite simple enough to receive 
such explanations as the Zoist offers, and 
would be much more affected by great words 
about imposture, and psychology, and the dif- 
ferential calculus. For what is the crushing 
and exterminating solution actually given after 
this boasting and bragging ? I shall hardly be 
believed, I fear ; and I cannot add as the poet 
does, that there are no prcemia falsi to tempt 
me. My aim, and object, and earnest desire, 
is to do something (however little may be in 
my power) towards freeing men who are 
capable of forming an opinion on such matters 
of fact as are to be judged of by common 



THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 33 

sense, from the tyranny of empirics and pre- 
tenders to philosophy and science ; and some 
readers may think, without any serious breach 
of charity or justice, that I am under a tempta- 
tion to represent these philosophers and pre- 
tenders, especially those who swagger and 
affect to lead, in a ridiculous point of view. I do 
not deny that I am, like all other persons, liable 
to such temptations ; but in the present case, 
if I had no scruple about falsehood, and did not 
know how easily it might be detected, my 
imagination would never have reached to the 
invention of such an explanation. Indeed the 
ingenious inventor seems to have thought that 
it would be above even the readers of the Zoist, 
if not embellished with cuts. He says ; — 

u As to the raps, they are successfully made with the foot 
against a leg of the table or the chair. Place the sole of one 
of your boots or shoes with one side bent downwards (one 
foot being crossed over the other, if you please), so that the 
upper edge shall touch the leg of the table or chair ; and 
then a very slight movement of it backwards or forwards will 
give you the precise rappist sound : and you may give any in- 
tensity you think proper. Striking the inner edges of the two 
soles together will also give a tapping sound." 

And that it may be quite clear, there is a 
picture, thus ; — 

D 



34 



THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 




iC Insist upon the medium standing upright or sitting with 
her feet* apart, and not under the table, nor touching any 
thing but the ground, her petticoats being raised enough to 
expose the whole foot, and you will have no rappings : pro- 
vided she have no confederate. 

" As to the movement of the table, the medium sits with 
her feet under it, and you see that her knees are far too low 
to touch it. But she afterwards quietly crosses her knees, 
and the upper thigh touches it ; and by a very slight turning 
movement, invisible to the rest who sit round the table, and 
not requiring effort enough to disturb a feature, the table is 
put in motion at pleasure. Insist upon the spirits moving 
the table while she is placed beyond the possibility of contact 
with it, and you will have no movement : unless she have a 
confederate."— No. XLL, April, 1853, p. 93. 

Then follows another cut, thus ;— 



THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 



35 




This is actually, and, as far as I understand, 
seriously, printed, in the Zoist, and illustrated 
with cuts, of which those here given are exact 
copies ; and let me ask the reader to consider 
how many acquaintances he has whom he 
could take in by this clever contrivance ? It 
would, of course, occur to him to pick out the 
stupidest of his friends; and it would be desirable 
to receive him in a dark room, were it not that 
in some unphilosophical minds such a course 
might raise suspicion of fraud. Perhaps it 
d 2 



36 THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 

would not be safe to go farther, though quite 
necessary to go as far, as to place him with 
his back to the operator, charging him on no 
account to look behind him 7 . I know not 
what other precaution to suggest. Possibly 
the writer in the Zoist might contrive other 
methods of meeting the difficulties in which^ 
I venture to think, an operator on his plan 
would find himself involved, if he undertook 
to perform in public, or indeed before any but 
very select companies of such persons as the 
Zoist is obviously written for. 

7 It might be not amiss to prepare him for the raps by 
recounting, from the Arabian Nights, how those two amiable 
princes, Bahman and Perviz, were successively transmogri- 
fied, for looking behind them to see what caused the strange 
noises which followed them as they went up the mountain to 
get the talking bird; while their more ingenious sister 
Princess Parizade escaped their fate by a wonderful con- 
trivance quite worthy of the Zoist's scientific engineer. To 
the kind dissuasion of the Dervise stationed at the foot of the 
hill to recommend adventurers not to go up it, and also to 
show them the way, "the Princess replied . . . . ( as in all 
enterprises and dangers one may use contrivance, I desire to 
know of you if I may make use of it in one of so great im- 
portance to me.' * And what" is it you would make use of?' 
said the Dervise. ( To stop my ears with cotton,' answered 

the Princess ? Madam,' replied the Dervise, ' of all the 

persons who have addressed themselves to me, to ask the 
way, I do not know that ever any one made use of the con- 
trivance you propose.' " — p. 382. 



THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 37 

For the worst of all is, that the Zoist boot- 
and-shoe-rapping no more meets this case, 
than Professor Faraday's apparatus met the 
other. It is all very well to talk of " rapping," 
and €t tapping," and of meeting the exigency 
with such noises as men may make by crack- 
ing their joints, or "the displacement of the 
tendon of the peroneus longus muscle in the 
sheath in which it slides behind the external 
malleolus;" but if an audience know any 
thing more of the pretensions and practices 
of spirit-rappers than the Zoist has seen fit 
to tell, they will require phaenomena which 
the philosopher will find it difficult to furnish 
by kicking the shins of chairs and tables — 
without being suspected too — that is such a 
sad addition to his difficulty. 

Imagine, for instance, that some unscientific, 
matter-of-fact reader — not enlightened or for- 
tified by this merciless exposure of the Zoist — 
has taken up any book, or newspaper, contain- 
ing a popular account of the matter. Suppose 
it to be the one that comes first to my hand, 
" Spirit-rapping in England and America 8 ." 
He will find a Mr. Hammond's account of 

8 Published by Clarke, Beeton, and Co., Fleet Street. 



38 THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 

what is said to have taken place between two 
and three years before this ingenious expla- 
nation of the Zoist was published. With this 
story in his head (even supposing that it has not 
led him to read a score of others like it) he 
will hardly be satisfied with the boot-and-shoe 
performance, even supposing the philosopher 
to be shod with iron, as horses and some other 
animals are. Whether the story is true, and 
indeed whether there ever was "a clergy- 
man of the name of Hammond" at Rochester, 
in America, is of no importance to our en- 
quiry ; which is simply how far the Zoist ex- 
planation meets the alleged facts of a case 
which is only one of a multitude. The state- 
ment which we suppose the enquirer to have 
read, and to wish to have explained by philo- 
sophers, is that, one evening in the month of 
January 1850, Mr. Hammond was seated with 
a lady and her three daughters at "a large 
table," on which there was a lighted candle. 
" On taking our positions," he says, " the 
sounds were heard and continued to multiply 
and become more violent, until every part of 
the room trembled with their demonstrations." 
Perhaps the philosopher would have been 
puzzled to imitate this — but then follows a 



THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 39 

statement that the table (so far as appeared 
automatically) withdrew, so as to be full six 
feet from Mr. Hammond, and "at least four 
from the nearest person to it." Awkwardly 
for the philosophic hypothesis, while the table 
was thus separated from the company, and 
quite out of the reach of shoes and boots, 
"the demonstrations grew louder and louder 9 ." 
Now there is the story — if, without enquiry, 
our philosophers like to say that it is all mere 
falsehood, let them. I have no interest in 
maintaining its truth — if they like to examine, 
and cross-examine, and sift, such facts in the 
most severe spirit of scrutiny, all honest men 
will thank them — but they should not insult 
us with such very childish explanations. The 
boot-and-shoe hypothesis will not do ; and we 
may safely say, that the Americans do not 
possess the f smartness ' for which they have 
credit, if tens of thousands of them have been 
taken in for years by such shallow devices. 
The book to which I have just referred is not a 
very recent publication. It is not however 
dated, and I do not know how long I have had 
it, but it says, "mediums are now very com- 

9 P. 20. 



40 THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 

mon. It is calculated that there are, at the 
present moment, something like thirty thou- 
sand of them practising in various parts of the 
United States 10 ." How far this is true, and 
what may be the number of unsuspecting per- 
sons practised on, I do not know; but the 
Zoist has provided for them, and for all per- 
sons in all times, the explanation which I have 
quoted. There, in its pages, stand the cuts. 
They cannot be unprinted, but must remain 
before the world, for the inspection and in- 
struction of men — graphic specimens of scien- 
tific simpletonism. 

Such things would be unworthy of notice 
if it were not for one consideration, on which I 
would add a few words. Knowing that I am 
liable to be misrepresented, I will repeat, that 
I am not writing with a view to maintain that 
clairvoyants see all, or any, of the things which 
they profess to see, or that any rapping or 
tapping, or table-turning or talking, is caused 
by one thing or another — by spirit or by 
matter. But I do most earnestly say that, 
whether with reference to this, or to any other 
subject, broad sweeping charges of fraud, cast 

10 P. 15. 



THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 41 

about at random, unsupported, and unauthen- 
ticated, are in a high degree injurious to the 
morals and the happiness of the human race. 
They go directly to destroy the faith of man- 
kind in God, and in one another; and they 
tend to promote in those who are simple 
enough to listen to them, a general, stupid, 
unreasoning scepticism. Explanatory philo- 
sophers, when they find their explanations 
laughed at, as less intelligible and credible 
than the mysteries which they are brought to 
explain, seem to think that they have no 
alternative but to fall back on wholesale, reck- 
less, denial. As they " must admit any solution 
rather than a miracle," so they must make any 
shift rather than confess ignorance ; and yet, 

(t Quis pudor illud 
4 Nescio ' honoratum constant! promere voce 
Q,uom sit opus 1 " 

At the same time these modest philosophers 
expect us to believe whatever they tell us. 
They demand from us a credulity as stupid and 
unreasoning as their own. They really require 
a baser and more degrading abnegation of un- 
derstanding. Their explanations are, to say 
the least, as incredible and unintelligible as 



42 THE ZOIST ON SPIRIT-RAPPING. 

the mysteries themselves. For my own part, 
I would rather believe all Reichenbach's " thou- 
sand" ghost stories, or the thousand and one 
Arabian Nights, speaking-bird, singing-tree 
and all, than pin my faith on the dicta of such 
philosophers. I verily believe that it would be 
a less evil to go back to the days and the creed 
of Goody Two-shoes — shoes never prostituted, 
I warrant me, to the profane practice of sham 
spirit-rapping, or the more silly and mis- 
chievous deception of pseudo-scientific ex- 
planation. What if her ignorant neighbours 
were afraid to cross the church-yard after 
dark, for fear of meeting a ghost in the form 
of a windmill, with a gun by his side instead 
of a sword, it w r as no such very great hardship, 
and probably only kept them from going where 
they had no business, and were seeking no 
good ; and, at all events, it was not so bad for 
them as it would have been to imbibe some 
doctrines of modern philosophy which are 
popular among their posterity of the present 
day, and which I do not wish to particularize. 



MR. TOWNSHEND AND MR. CLOSE, &C. 43 



§ 6. MR. TOWNSHEND AND MR. CLOSE, ON 
TABLE-TURNING AND RAPPING. 

Since the foregoing pages relating to the Zoist 
solution of the rapping mystery were written, 
another number of that work has furnished 
further explanation respecting table-turning. 
As I was already in possession of the first 
edition of the Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend's 
work, I did not feel it necessary to get the 
second; and therefore I know the additions 
made in it only by a quotation in the Zoist, 
part of which I extract : — 

"We extract the following from the new edition of Mr. 
Townshend's Mesmerism proved True: — 

* With regard to Table-turning, and Table- talking, the mus- 
cular hypothesis does not satisfy me a whit more than when I 
wrote my book. On the contrary, I have lately seen some 
curious cases of Table-motion, which confirm me in the idea 
that certain individuals under certain conditions dispense an 
imponderable force, by very strong volition, aild very slight 
contact, from the brain to the object which they touch. I 
have seen a table violently agitated, when only the tips of the 
fingers of one or two persons, in whom I have thorough trust, 
were laid upon it." 

* * * * * * 

u I have seen, in my own house, what is called ' Table-talk- 
ing ;' and I had every reason to believe the good faith of the 



44 MR. TOWNSHEND AND MR. CLOSE, 

parties concerned in the experiment. The communication 
was kept up by the leg of the table, lifting up and rapping, 
as the alphabet was called over. The answers were curious, 
but entirely confirmed me in my belief that action (perhaps 
unconscious action) of the brain calls forth the answers that 
are (without a shadow of evidence) attributed to spiritual and 
external agency. The moving force belongs, I believe, to 
persons peculiarly endowed, who, from what I observed, are, 
during the operation, in a peculiar state of excitement, per- 
haps semi-mesmeric." — Zoist, Jan. 1855, pp. 417, 418. 

I do not wish to do injustice to Mr. Town- 
shend ; and, but for its length, I should be glad 
to give the whole of the Zoist's extract from 
his work, for the sake of facts which he states, 
and which, on his testimony, I fully believe. 
But in all the extract, long and curious as it is, 
I really do not see any thing in the way of 
explanation, except what I have here copied ; 
and the reader will judge how far that entitles 
the author to say, " Thus, I deny not the facts, 
I explain them." The explanation, as far as I 
see, is neither more nor less than this — that 
perhaps there may be certain individuals pe- 
culiarly endowed, who under certain condi- 
tions not defined or explained, and in a state of 
excitement not accounted for, have the power 
of dispensing an imponderable force not under- 
stood, by very strong volition and very slight 



ON TABLE-TURNING AND RAPPING. 45 

contact. I think that this hardly authorizes 
Mr. TownshencPs assertion, " I explain them f 
— he adds, " and that in such a way as to 
steady the brain down to this world — a world 
that has quite enough marvels of its own to 
occupy us healthily." On the latter part of 
this sentence, I say nothing; for perhaps I do 
not understand it. 

Mr. Close, after having in the body of his 
pamphlet, "The Testers tested," proclaimed 
full toleration for believers of all sorts, except 
those who believe that there is any thing super- 
natural in the matter 1 , adds an Appendix, 

1 " Mr. Dib'din's hard-headed friend remained, and I hope 
he still remains, a sceptic — and ' thinks it is electricity after all/ 
whether it be that or any other power I neither know nor 
care ; but so long as he resists all this strange, inconsistent 
and profane evidence, and believes it is neither supernatural 
nor satanic, I agree with him." — p. 20. In his earlier 
pamphlet, entitled " Table-turning not Diabolical," after de- 
fining a miracle to be "something which implies the inter- 
ruption of the known laws of the material world, their sus- 
pension, or disturbance ; some experiment in matter which, 
having been submitted to the severe test of our natural 
senses, is clearly supernatural," he adds, " Now no instance 
of this kind is recorded in the page of Scripture during the 
first 1600 years of the world's existence. From Adam to 
Noah we read of no miracle — not even of the interference of 
an angel." — p. 3. Again, he says on the next page, "Here 
then we have a brief and rapid sketch of the facts of Scrip- 
ture touching miraculous interferences. From Adam to 



46 MR. TOWNSHEND AND MR. CLOSE, 

which seems to come to much the same as 
Mr. Townshend's " very strong volition/* with- 
out his "very slight contact." It is as fol- 
lows : — 

Since writing the above I have received from an intelli- 
gent correspondent the following remarkable account of a 
series of experiments made by him with a view if possible to 
ascertain whether the replies supposed to be received from 
some foreign and independent agency, were not the mere sug- 
gestions conscious or unconscious of some of the interrogators 
themselves. 

"On Saturday Evening, December 3d, I sat down with 
another gentleman at a small mahogany table having first 
written down four questions which I desired the gentleman 
first to answer in the affirmative, and then to * will' that the 
table should rap the same answers as he had given himself — 
which it did. I then desired him to ' will' that the table should 
answer the same four questions in the negative — which it 
did ! ! I then desired him to fix in his mind upon one of the 
letters of the alphabet (which was to remain unknown to me) 
and then to will, that when (whilst reading over the alphabet) 
I pronounced that particular letter the table should rap once 
— which it did. This experiment was tried three or four times 
and with the same effect. 



Noah, about 1600 years, none ! [sic] Neither angel, nor 
wonder, nor sign." — ib. p. 5. Those who have not entirely 
rationalized away the book of Genesis, and its account of the 
creation of Eve, the temptation by the Serpent, the Cherubim 
of Eden, Cain's discourse with Jehovah, and Enoch's transla- 
tion, will probably be surprised at this language, and the line 
of argument in which it occurs, and to which it is necessary. 



ON TABLE-TURNING AND RAPPING. 47 

" Again — The particular letters fixed upon were written on 
slips of paper and placed on the table (the figures downwards) 
so as to remain unseen by me until the experiment ended. 

"I then desired him to fix in his own mind upon any 
number under ten, to write it down on paper as before, and 
then to will that upon my naming the number the table should 
rap the amount — which it did ! 

" This experiment was repeated four or five times. 

a The gentleman then willed that the table should rap, and 
continue to rap until he willed it to stop — which it did. 

a He then desired it to rise on two legs, and to remain in 
that position until he willed it to drop — which it did, &c. &c. 

K It thus appears evident that what we call will (whatever 
that may be) is the power by which the table is governed — » 
and that superhuman agency, properly so called, has nothing 
whatever to do with it." 



Such is the simple and straightforward account of my cor- 
respondent. And should his experiments be corroborated by 
further and more patient investigation, all the Diabolical 
agency which has been conjured up will vanish into thin air. 

Such testimony as to matter of fact, coming 
from such a quarter, is valuable. How far it 
is met by Professor Faraday's apparatus and 
reasoning, the reader who is acquainted with 
them will be able to judge. At any rate it is 
explained— it is what we call Will, whatever 
that may be. That is all. You understand ? 



48 CREDULITY. 



§ 7. CREDULITY. 

I have said that the mode in which con- 
troversy concerning such matters as those re- 
ferred to in this Essay, is carried on by some 
of the parties engaged in it, has a tendency to 
generate in their minds a stupid, unreasoning, 
and universal scepticism. It seems to me that 
such must be generally, and with relation to 
all subjects, the consequence of perpetual 
efforts to discover untruth, to resist conviction, 
to escape from belief, to discredit testimony, to 
disprove, to disbelieve. Such use of our fa- 
culties is not only injurious; it is vicious and 
unnatural. The Philosopher may call it an 
infirmity of human nature — for, although he 
may have risen above, or otherwise got rid of 
them himself, he is forced to admit that human 
nature has some very unphilosophical infirmi- 
ties — but it is a mere matter of fact that the 
belief of human testimony is as truly a part of 
man's nature, as his appetite for food, and his 
sustentation by it. To disbelieve is in some 
sense to do violence to his nature; and to 
resist a natural instinct or appetite. Not that 
he ought, in fact, to believe all that he is told, 



CREDULITY. 49 

any more than he ought to eat all that he can 
lay his hands on, as in his earlier stages of 
existence he is very prone to do ; but, that the 
natural instinct is for sucking in and swal- 
lowing. Of course it is at first without dis- 
crimination, and liable to be injurious, or even 
destructive. But as he grows up he is taught 
by counsel, and experience, that some things 
are disagreeable, some unwholesome, some poi- 
sonous ; and he learns to distinguish, to take 
and leave. 

It is much the same with the credulous 
child, w 7 ho finds, as he grows up, that he must 
not believe all that every body says. He may 
learn this without knowing or reflecting that 
his Scylla has its Charybdis; and if he has 
more cleverness than good sense (especially if 
he happens to be thrown among pseudo- 
philosophers) it is very possible that the ex- 
perience and discoveries of his early life may 
turn him into a smart young man, who has 
found so much benefit, and got so much credit, 
by resisting this natural propensity to belief, 
that he may have come to consider it the finest 
thing in the world, and the surest mark of a 
" talented" man, to believe as little as possible. 
And yet, so tenacious is nature of her rights, 

E 



50 CREDULITY. 

that after he has been buffeted about in the 
world for threescore years and ten — most of 
the time complaining that all men were liars, 
and protesting that he believed nothing but 
what he saw with his own eyes — you find the 
man (and if he looks into his own soul, con- 
siders his ways, and investigates his springs of 
action, he finds himself) acting mostly from 
hour to hour, and from year to year, on what 
people have told him — testimony which, from 
the nature of things, he cannot have inves- 
tigated — in short on what, if any motive 
prompted him to reject and contradict it, 
he would at once pronounce to be mere hear- 
say 2 . 

With a view to this, will the reader be so 
good as to turn back to p. 15, and observe 
how something (not the od force I conceive) 
has constrained the Baron von Reichenbach to 
do homage to truth, and the God of truth, and 
His immutable dispensation on this point, by 
acknowledging the powerful influence of human 

2 A friend who saw this in manuscript, kindly pointed out 
to me a passage in Tocqueville's work, entitled "De la 
Democratic en Amerique." — " II n'y a pas de si grand philo- 
sophe dans le monde qui ne croie un million de choses sur la 
foi d'autrui, et qui ne suppose beaucoup plus de verites qu'il 
n'en etablit." Sec. Partie, cap. II. p. 11. 



CREDULITY. 51 

testimony? The sheet anchor of his strange story 
about Pfeffel and Billing is, that it came forth 
on the authority of " the most trustworthy man 
alive/* All hangs on one man, but he is deemed 
trustworthy, and is trusted. The story was told 
on his authority, and that led to its wide circu- 
lation, and discussion, and made theologians and 
psychologists think it worth while to invent " a 
thousand frightful interpretations" of facts 
which they did not venture to deny, but which 
(according to the Baron^s account) they were 
too ignorant to explain. It was the story of 
one man that was thus immediately accepted 
and current; would it have been more ho- 
noured if drawn and indorsed by the ces triplex 
of Sheridan, Hook, and Tom Moore ? 

There is no helping it. If Samuel Johnson 
had made an affidavit, that twenty times, in 
twenty different years, he had seen his chair 
jump over his table, at his word of command, 
thousands from the day of the date of the said 
affidavit to the present, would have thought 
the matter worthy of discussion, even after 
philosophers had strictly forbidden any such 
goings on, under the penalty of their wrath 
and rebuke. There would have been a con- 
stant reclamation that Johnson was purblind, 
e 2 



52 CREDULITY. 

and stupid, and went to church, and always 
believed every thing. Some very sharp people 
perhaps would be calling for proof of John- 
son's having ever existed — some would de- 
nounce the document as a forgery without 
looking at it — others would quietly state that 
the thing was impossible, and the story not to 
be listened to by persons of mental cultivation 
— others would satisfy select companies, and 
perhaps (if very stupid) themselves, by asking, 
te Why did not the table jump over the chair?" 
or " If the chair could jump over the table, 
why could it not crawl under it?" or "If 
Johnson's chair did it, why do not other chairs 
do it?" or " Why don't I see it if he did?" 

But notwithstanding all this — even while 
this funny philosophy was in some sort flou- 
rishing, and explanations of detective philo- 
sophers were civilly listened to by those who 
could keep their countenances, and wished that 
what they heard might be true — there would 
still be thousands and tens of thousands who 
would not know how to get over, or what 
to make of, such an affidavit from Samuel 
Johnson. 



FAITH AND SIGHT, 53 



§ 8. FAITH AND SIGHT. 

"Having never seen the magnetic pheno- 
mena, I have no right to pronounce judgment; 
but before I can believe these wonders, I must 
see them." So Dr. Elliotson wrote in the 
year 1828. Referring to it long afterwards he 
says that up to the year 1837 he had only 
" seen enough of mesmerism to assert it was 
true" so far as some of the less wonderful 
phenomena were concerned ; and he adds, " it 
was not till 1841, that I saw, or ventured to 
assert, the occurrence of vision with the eyes 
firmly closed : nor was it till the present year, 
1844, that I witnessed, or ventured to assert, 
the fact of that highest degree of clairvoyance, 
in which" a person knows, as by vision, what is 
going on at a great distance, or can tell what 
has taken place or will take place in matters 
not relating to his own health or own affairs, 
but to various events in the lives of others 3 ." 

I cannot speak from experience respecting 
either of the three states ; but I should think 
that next to the ecstasy of nitrous oxide, or 

3 Zoist, No. VIII., p. 477. 



54 FAITH AND SIGHT. 

mesmeric trance, nothing could be so delightful 
as that state of self-sufficiency which in all 
things pins its own faith on its own sleeve, 
and is never disturbed but when perverse op- 
ponents cannot be brought to use the same 
pincushion. It may be a fault or a misfortune, 
but I must confess it as a fact, that I have no 
sympathy with such persons. I believe many 
things which people tell me, but of which I 
have seen nothing. I venture to assert some 
things which I have not witnessed; with as 
much confidence as if I had seen them. I do 
so, moreover, in many cases, with greater con- 
fidence than if I had only seen them myself. 
For instance, I believe Dr. Elliotson when, in 
the paper already quoted, he states that his 
patient "could predict numerous things re- 
lating to others;" because I have confidence 
in his integrity and capacity to judge. But why 
does he (somewhat in the manner of the Baron) 
go out of his way to assure his readers that 
" this patient is the perfection of integrity and 
every other moral excellence. Her word is a 
fact: and her truth is not less absolute than 
her freedom from vanity 4 ." What did this 

4 Ibid., p. 478. 



FAITH AND SIGHT. 55 

matter if seeing is believing ? Was it possible 
that, seeing for himself, he might have been 
deceived by a person of a different character ? 
Does he doubt that if the patient had been an 
impostor, she would have much more easily 
deceived me than himself? and does not he 
think me a wiser man for believing him, than 
he would if I told him that his testimony went 
for nothing, and that, of course, I should not 
believe until I had seen ? Very strange it is to 
see how faith claims its right and creeps in, 
and comes over, and controls, and directs sight. 
The real meaning of the language used by 
these philosophers in this matter is, not " see 
and believe," but " let me see, and I will tell 
you what to believe" — and 1 am not now find- 
ing fault with it. On the contrary I meet it, 
and humour it, and confide in it, as far as I 
possibly can. As I have already said, I believe 
Dr. Elliotson when he states that this lady pro- 
phesied, and I believe him also when he says 
that he found a family whom he visited engaged 
in table-turning, and adds : — 

" The father had been assisting, but now his place was 
vacant, and still it moved on. I sat down and joined in the 
experiment, and from time to time it moved as before. Every 
one placed merely the tips of the fingers upon the table, so very 



56 FAITH AND SIGHT. 

slightly that often one or other really did not touch the table. 
I now and then tried the hands of one or other and found 
the contact so trifling that movement by pressure seemed im- 
possible. I can answer for myself. The family was that of 
Mr. C. R. Stanley, the eminent painter. The truthfulness of 
father and children and their desire to ascertain the real facts 
are perfect and unalloyed. They were all grave and serious 
in the matter. They felt assured all the time that they did 
not even unconsciously push the table, I watched them all 
anxiously and uninterruptedly, and they as anxiously watched 
themselves. From time to time I tried their hands during 
the whole of the long experiment, and I cannot discern how 
there was any possibility of the table being pushed. More- 
over, the table always slid away from their fingers and mine, so 
lightly did we all touch it. It moved faster than the fingers 
of any of us, and got in advance of us." — Zoist, No. XLIL, 
p. 195. 

As I have said, I fully credit all this, on 
the testimony of Dr. Elliotson ; and, as far as 
I know (for I am not used to hair-splitting in 
such matters), I am as much convinced of the 
facts which he states as if I had been present. 
I am inclined to ask, as he does, after having 
alluded to the hypothesis of unconscious mus- 
cular movement, and admitted that it may 
sometimes occur; — 

" But may not such movements frequently result from some 
other cause — from an occult energy 5 ? There are the facts re- 

5 The reader will recollect that Dr. Elliotson is not, by the 



FAITH AND SIGHT. 57 

corded by Mr. Townshend and Mr. Sandby. A very large 
number of persons who have moved tables, and of others who 
have witnessed the movements, ridicule to me the idea of 
this explanation. They know of the explanation before they 
make the experiment : and are most careful that the tips of 
the fingers shall touch the table in the lightest possible way, 
so that you may almost see between the fingers and the 
table."— Ibid., p. 193. 

This seems to me to be most reasonable. 
I believe because I know not how to resist the 
testimony of such, and so many, witnesses. 
" There are/ 5 as Dr. Elliotson says, w the facts 
recorded by Mr. Townshend and Mr. Sandby." 
Certainly there is, in the letters of these gen- 
tlemen, addressed to Dr. Elliotson and pub- 
lished in this same single number of the Zoist, 
quite enough to warrant this appeal to them. 
Mr. Sandby writes under the date of Paris, 
May 28, 1853—" All Paris is in excitement at 
the ' dancing of the tables 5 — as they call it. 
We have heard of nothing else since our 
arrival" . . . . " every acquaintance that I have 
met refers to it: men, women, and children 
begin at once to tell you what they have seen 



words which I have put in italics, professing to explain, though 
he inadvertently falls into the mysterious phraseology com- 
monly used for that purpose. 



58 FAITH AND SIGHT. 

or done/' This multitudinous testimony, how- 
ever, did not satisfy, nor do I say that it should 
have satisfied, Mr. Sandby. " I determined/ 5 
he says, " to judge for myself, and lose no 
time in bringing the alleged results to a test." 
The consequence was that he considered the 
fact as " undeniably established ;" and some 
of the remarks which he makes on the subject 
appear to me to be quite unanswerable. 

* It will be observed that there is no charge of imposture 
preferred against those who boast of their success in these ex- 
periments ; all that is said is, that they are self-deceived. Now 
let us admit that in very many instances this slight muscular 
pressure has set the table in motion ; I am speaking now of 
the incessant motions of the table ; but when the latter begins 
at length to move with such speed, that the experimenting 
circle can with difficulty keep up with it, the argument surely 
is at an end. It is idle to suppose that the scientific men, who 
have cautiously tested this alleged discovery should have been 
deceived at that stage of the experiment. Dr. Andree, of 
Bremen, says that on one occasion 'the table moved with 
such rapidity that they who formed the chain could scarcely 
follow the rotation.' Dr. Mayer, chief editor of La Presse 
Medicale, at Paris, mentions that, a chain having been formed 
with three of his friends, at the end of eight minutes 
the rotatory movement had acquired such speed that they 
could with difficulty keep up with it. Dr. Hermann Shauen- 
burg, Professor at Bonn, employs similar language in respect 
to a small mahogany chest of drawers. I have read similar 
statements in regard to some other experiments at Paris. 



FAITH AND SIGHT. 59 

And a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, who is well 
known to the editor, says, that c the motion increased in rapi- 
dity and we became both dizzy from moving round, and tired 
with the circular length of walk or rather run. I tried to 
stop the table by pressing very heavily, and succeeded,' &c. 
Now all these experiences are decisive as to the fact. It is 
impossible that all these grave narrators could have been mis- 
taken. They might not be conscious of giving a slight pres- 
sure at first, but when the rapidity of the table became such 
^hat they could scarcely follow it, it is ludicrous to suppose 
that philosophic men who are purposely testing an alleged 
phenomenon with the wish of establishing what is the truth, 
should be self- deceived in a transaction of that nature." — 
Ibid., p. 181. 

I believe the same gentleman when, in the 
next number, and in pursuit of the same sub- 
ject, he relates what appears to me to be one of 
the clearest and most decisive experiments that 
I have heard of. It seems fully to justify the 
brief and plain head line of his page, and would 
by itself be enough to prove " Mr. Faraday 
wrong" He says ; — 

" I was in the company of several friends, when the conver- 
sation turned upon table-moving. Two or three sceptics ex- 
pressed their disbelief of some anecdotes which were related : 

when a clergyman present, the Rev. observed that he 

had himself been as decided a sceptic as any one, but that he 
had found that he possessed the power to a considerable degree. 
It was agreed that he should be tested under the surveillance 



60 FAITH AND SIGHT. 

of his sceptical neighbours. He took a slim and very light hat 
(it is important to bear these points in mind), and placing the 
fingers of his two hands perpendicularly upon the flat and outer 
part of the brim, commenced the experiment. The hat moved 
distinctly and rapidly in about a minute. This, of course, was 
at once attributed to muscular power ; with whatever good 
faith the party might have acted, the cause was still the same. 
It was, therefore, proposed by one of our sceptics that some- 
thing heavy should be placed inside the hat, something that 
might act with a vis inertia and offer resistance to the muscles. 
This was agreed to ; and a piece of marble, weighing about two 
pounds, was deposited inside : in less than a minute, however, 
the hat moved most unequivocally. This fortunately was not 
deemed sufficient : something still heavier was required. An 
Indian pestle and mortar, with which the Hindoos pound their 
rice, and weighing upwards of seven pounds (I have had it 
weighed since), was selected by our sceptic and placed inside the 
hat. We all considered it was useless to make an experiment 
under such circumstances ; but again, and to our surprise, in 
the course of a minute the hat walked off in a marked manner. 
Unfortunately the experiments always produced such dis- 
tressing sensations upon my friend, the operator, that he was 
glad to withdraw his hands soon after the hat was in move- 
ment ; but still there was ample opportunity for distinctly 
watching the effect. The hat stood upon a table more than a 
foot from the operator ; his fingers were not laid horizontally 
upon the brim, or partly bent over it so as to obtain a pur- 
chase ; but he held them vertically downwards, touching the 
hat slightly with the tips, it might be almost said with the 
finger-nails. I stood next to him, and can guarantee the 
accuracy of my description : seven or eight other persons 
stood round the table watching the experiments, and were 
satisfied of the fact."— Zoist, No. XLIIL, p. 321. 



FAITH AND SIGHT. 61 

I offer no apology either to the authors, or 
to my readers, for these extracts. I believe 
that the former wrote with a view to make 
known truth, and that the latter will find my 
quotations the most interesting and valuable 
part of my pamphlet. If it has any appear- 
ance of book-making, it must be allowed even 
by those who suspect me of that sin, that it is 
committed on a very small scale. I feel, how- 
ever, that without doing something of the kind 
I should not be understood by a great portion 
of those for whom especially I write — I mean 
those who have not taken the trouble to en- 
quire what evidence has been given respecting 
facts. And therefore, though I have already 
referred to Mr. Townshend's work, I will here 
add some farther testimony from a letter ad- 
dressed by that gentleman to Dr. Elliotson, 
and published by him in the same number of 
the Zoist as Mr. Sandby's letter just quoted. 
It is dated from Lausanne, and gives much the 
same account of the state of things there, as 
Mr. Sandby did of those at Paris. He says, 
" I found all the world here talking of table- 
moving, and much in advance of the London 
world in regard to experiences ;" and, having 



62 FAITH AND SIGHT. 

related what he saw among some friends, he 
proceeds ; — 

" On arriving at home, I took a small, but, for its size, a 
heavy table, with an octagon top, one foot four inches across. 
It has three heavy claw legs, without castors, and the wood 
is very rough underneath. It moves with difficulty, and I 
can hardly push it round in an ordinary way. I placed it in 
a room without a carpet, and called in ray man Henry and 
one of the maids. I then, without saying what I wished to 
effect, made them place their hands lightly on the table ; I 
also placed mine, so as to touch little fingers all round. We 
all stood up, as in the former experiment. At first indeed 
I sat, but when the table began to move, in about four 
minutes," [hardly the time required by the fatigue parties 
who unconsciously push round the table by the mere weight 
of weariness] " I got up. My servants were astonished. 
The table went quickly round. They thought I was pushing 
it. No ! I was carried with it, and it always seemed to 
move more quickly than I, and I could hardly keep pace 

with it" " Madlle. de S shewed me a very large 

round table in her drawing room which by a sitting party 
with little fingers in contact (though this does not seem to be 
an essential) was made to move in forty minutes, so that a 
loose carpet, on which it stands, above a fixed carpet, was all 

rolled round the legs Madlle. de S to shew that 

nobody pushed the table, put draughtsmen all round it (in 
my presence), and then we laid our fingers on the draughts, 
and the table moved all the same ; whereas you know, had 
we pushed, the draughts would have moved. A sheet of 
paper laid on the table shews the same thing, for if one 



FAITH AND SIGHT. 63 

pushed, the sheet would be crumpled." — Zoist, No. XLIL, 
pp. 186. 188. 



If it be superstitious and credulous to be- 
lieve such statements as these from such wit- 
nesses as I have quoted,, I cannot help it. I 
know not what else to do. I do not think that 
my belief would, or should, be much more or 
less than it is, if I had been present at the ex- 
periments which I have quoted or referred to 
as attested by the witnesses whom I have 
named. I am not so vain as to suppose that 
impostors who cheated them could not have 
cheated me, or that if they cheated themselves 
I should be secure from self-deception. In 
truth nothing surprises me more than the 
quiet, self-complacent way in which many 
good people, for w 7 hose judgment in such a 
case nobody would give sixpence, express a 
wish that they had been there — they would 
have seen through it. Fifty people in Dr. 
Gregory^ drawing room might easily be 
hoaxed and made fools of, but— only it is not 
right to talk of one's self. 

Are we not then, it may be asked, to use our 
senses and to trust them? Undoubtedly we 
are to use them ; and we cannot help trusting 



64 FAITH AND SIGHT. 

them. But if we would use them rightly and 
beneficially, they must be employed in harmo- 
nious co-operation among themselves ; and 
we must also use, and respect, and trust other 
people's senses as well as our own. We must 
be thankful to hear as well as to see, and it 
w T ill be wise to enquire, and bear in mind how 
vast an influence mere hearsay has had and 
constantly exerts over our characters, actions, 
and circumstances. If indeed any man could 
confine his belief to w r hat he had seen he would 
have but a narrow and worthless creed on all 
subjects — useless, and probably mischievous, 
to himself and every body else. 

It is, however, certain that not only in the 
higher mysteries of religion, but in the forma- 
tion of opinion generally, " faith cometh by 
hearing." It is plainly the will of God that 
man should, by this method of testimony, ob- 
tain a great part of his faith — of that unmiti- 
gated faith which has the full acquiescence of 
all his intellectual faculties, so that he is no 
longer turning it over, and scrutinizing it, as a 
cashier does a bank note; but has locked it 
up in the safe, and carried it to the account of 
what he calls, not faith, but knowledge. This 
knowledge, I say,— this accepted and funded 



FAITH AND SIGHT. 65 

faith, in a great measure, " cometh by hearing," 
and so it is that we have learned most of what 
we know. And this faith — I repeat that I am 
not speaking particularly of religious faith — 
which springs from testimony, and ripens into 
knowledge, is not only much greater in the 
extent and variety of its objects, but also in- 
comparably more intense and influential, than 
sight. 

All this is consistent with — in truth it leads 
to, and demands — the most strict and search- 
ing enquiry respecting facts. Let witnesses be 
examined and cross-examined with rigour ; but 
let it not be settled beforehand that if their 
testimony is not such as we would have it 
to be, we will denounce them, and all who 
listen to them, as knaves or fools. 

Thus far I had written, intending this little 
Essay as an Introduction to a rather larger 
work, which I hope to publish. I am induced 
however now to print it separately by circum- 
stances which I will mention 6 . 

6 Perhaps some expressions, and extracts inserted when 
I resolved to print this Essay separately, and as it passed 
through the press, may seem to contradict this ; but it is 
substantially true. 



66 professor faraday's lecture. 



§ 9. professor faraday's lecture. 

The Managers of the Royal Institution 
thought it advisable that a course of "Lec- 
tures on Education" should be given in the 
interval between Easter and the termination 
of the session of 1854. After they had been 
delivered, " it appeared desirable to the Ma- 
nagers that the widest circulation should be 
given to these Lectures." They have, there- 
fore, not only been printed and published, but 
furnished gratuitously to all members of the 
Institution applying for them. The Second 
Lecture (that to which I would direct atten- 
tion) was delivered by Professor Faraday, on 
May 6th, 1854; but the title page bears the 
date of 1855 ; and I did not see the volume or 
even know of the Lectures until this year. 

The Lecture is entitled "Observations on 
Mental Education;" and it was, the title in- 
forms us, delivered before H. R. H. Prince 
Albert. 

Of course I do not dispute the right of the 
managers to appoint what lecturers and lec- 
tures they please, and to take such steps as they 
think proper for circulating those lectures after 



professor faraday's lecture. 67 

they have been delivered. But when Prince 
Albert presides, and Professor Faraday lec- 
tures, there should be, and there is sure to be, 
such an audience, and such an impression, as 
makes it a matter of great importance that 
nothing erroneous should be delivered — or if 
human infirmity makes this impossible, that 
at least the discourse should, both by its 
general aim and tenor, and by its specific state- 
ments, conduce to the confirmation and illus- 
tration of truth. It is not then from feelings 
of disrespect to His Royal Highness who pre- 
sided, or to the Professor who lectured, or to 
the Managers who appointed, but because I 
feel that all are respected and entitled to re- 
spect, that I ask for attention to a few remarks 
on the lecture. 

The Professor having stated his intention of 
" bringing forward a few desultory observations 
respecting the exercise of the mental powers in 
a particular direction " goes on to say ; — 

"Before entering upon the subject, I must take one dis- 
tinction which, however it may appear to others, is to me of 
the utmost importance. High as man is placed above the 
creatures around him, there is a higher and far more exalted 
position within his view ; and the ways are infinite in which 
he occupies his thoughts about the fears, or hopes, or expecta- 
F 2 



tions of a future life. I believe that the truth of that future 
cannot be brought to his knowledge by any exertion of his 
mental powers, however exalted they may be ; that it is made 
known to him by other teaching than his own, and is received 
through simple belief of the testimony given. Let no one 
suppose for a moment that the self-education I am about to 
commend in respect of the things of this life, extends to any 
considerations of the hope set before us, as if man by reason- 
ing could find out God. It would be improper here to enter 
upon this subject further than to claim an absolute distinction 
between religious and ordinary belief. I shall be reproached 
with the weakness of refusing to apply those mental operations 
which I think good in respect of high things to the very 
highest. I am content to bear the reproach. Yet, even in 
earthly matters, I believe that the invisible things of Him 
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being under- 
stood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and 
Godhead ; and I have never seen any thing incompatible 
between those things of men which can be known by the spirit 
of man which is within him, and those higher things concern- 
ing his future which he cannot know by that spirit." — p. 40. 

I do not perhaps fully understand this pas- 
sage ; but one thing, and it is the most impor- 
tant, is perfectly clear — namely, that the Pro- 
fessor thinks fit " to claim an absolute distinc- 
tion between religious and ordinary belief." 
I wish that the distinction had been clearly 
stated, for I have no idea what distinction 
there is, and never imagined that there was 
any. As far as I see, belief may be raised 



professor faraday's lecture. 69 

from different causes or sources, exercised in 
different ways, and exist with reference to dif- 
ferent objects and subjects, but surely whether 
its circumstances induce people to call it reli- 
gious or ordinary, it is nothing more or less 
than Belief as opposed to Unbelief. I pretend 
to no skill in arguments of this kind. I have 
been used to suppose that in all things I either 
believed or disbelieved (or more properly un- 
believed) and that if I did believe, I had only 
one sort of belief to believe with. I may be 
wrong, but from what I have seen elsewhere, I 
cannot help looking with jealousy on the intro- 
duction of such a distinction. 

After making the claim just noticed, the Pro- 
fessor proceeds to point out what appears to 
him " to be a great deficiency in the exercise 
of the mental powers in every direction," and 
adds, that " three words will express this great 
want, deficiency of judgment 7 " After some 
observations, and illustrations, relating to the 
error arising from this deficiency, the Professor 
states that " in matters connected with natural 
philosophy, we have wonderful aid in the pro- 
gress and assurance in the character, of our 

7 P. 41. 



70 professor faraday's lecture. 

final judgment, afforded us by the facts which 
supply our data, and the experience which 
multiplies their number and varies their testi- 
mony. A fundamental fact, like an elementary 
principle, never fails us, its evidence is always 
true our dependence should be on care- 
fully observed facts, and the laws of nature ; 
and I shall proceed to a further illustration 
of the mental deficiency I speak of, by a brief 
reference to one of these. The laws of nature, 
as we understand them, are the foundation of 
our knowledge in natural things .... these 
laws are numerous, and are more or less com- 
prehensive. They are also precise .... Pre- 
eminent among these laws,- because of its sim- 
plicity, its universality, and its undeviating 
truth, stands that enunciated by Newton (com- 
monly called the law of gravitation), that 
matter attracts matter with a force inversely 
as the square of the distance." p. 47 — 49. 

The shrewd reader will suspect that we are 
getting towards the subject of table-moving 
and the mysteries connected with it; and he 
is right enough, as he will presently see. The 
long and short of the lecture hitherto is, that 
iC society as a body" has manifested great want 
of judgment in believing their own eyes and 



professor faraday's lecture. 71 

ears instead of quietly saying to all the trouble- 
some table-turners, and talkers, and tilters, and 
rappers, " Go about your business, Newton 
has laid down the law; man cannot, and God 
will not, break it." After a brief reference to 
the discoveries connected with the law of gra- 
vitation, and asking " what truth beneath that 
of revelation, can have an assurance stronger 
than this," the Professor exclaims 

i( Yet this law is often cast aside as of no value or authority, 
because of the unconscious ignorance amidst which we dwell. 
You hear at the present day, that some persons can place 
their fingers on a table, and then elevating their hands, the 
table will rise up and follow them." — p. 50. 

Some of my readers may perhaps say, that 
however correct this language may have been 
as addressed to the president and the audience 
assembled before the lecturer, it is not true 
as addressed to them — that they do not hear 
of such things — they are even more in the dark 
than "your neighbour, a well-meaning consci- 
entious person " w r hom the Professor snubs and 
sneers at, for he hears and believes. It is with 
a view to the more unenlightened of these 
classes — to those who know nothing because 
they have never thought it worth while to 



72 professor faraday's lecture. 

enquire, but who would be the most competent 
to judge if they made themselves acquainted 
with the facts of the case instead of listening 
to the sore and silly explanations of baffled 
science, or rather nescience — that I make these 
remarks. You hear, continues the indignant 
Professor ; — 

" That the piece of furniture, though heavy, [one might 
excuse a light table, but in a heavy one such levity is pro- 
voking,] will ascend, and that their hands bear no weight, or 
are not drawn down to the wood ; you do not hear of this as a 
conjuring manoeuvre, to be shewn for your amusement, but 
are expected seriously to believe it ; and are told that it is an 
important fact, a great discovery amongst the truths of nature. 
Your neighbour, a well-meaning conscientious person, believes 
it ; and the assertion [what a compliment to my neighbour, and 
what a tribute to well-meaning, conscientious boobyism ; the 
scientific world may well be jealous of him] finds acceptance 
in every rank of society, and amongst classes which are 
esteemed to be educated. Now, what can this imply but that 
"society, speaking generally, is not only ignorant as it respects 
education of the judgment, but is also ignorant of its igno- 
rance." — Ibid. 

This is indeed a heavy charge against Society. 
So far from rising by Newton's discoveries, it 
has sunk far below his early ignorance. There 
was a time when he was at a loss to know why 
an apple fell; "society as a body" is such an 
ignoramus as not to know that an apple does 



professor faraday's lecture. 73 

fall, or else it would have decided at once, 
peremptorily and for ever, that a table could 
not rise in the air any more than a needle 
could jump up to meet a magnet-— which some 
have thought possible — but the Professor knows 
best. 

It is however more important to say a few 
words in answer to the Professor's question, 
as to the acceptance of an assertion which he 
considers so absurd. What can it imply but 
the disgraceful and disgusting ignorance of 
Society ? I answer — not as a scientific demon- 
strator, but as " a well-meaning conscientious 
person" encouraged by hearing how kindly 
my " neighbour," of the same low caste, has 
been listened to — that it may imply, and does 
imply, something else — something very different 
— the something which leads me to think the 
subject worth discussion, and to publish these 
pages. It is my belief, religious and ordinary 
both, if there be two sorts, that when such a 
statement of fact finds acceptance in every 
rank of society, and amongst classes which are 
esteemed to be educated, there must be in it, 
or connected with it, some truth worthy of 
investigation. The fact is one w r hich impera- 
tively claims the attention of every reflecting 



74 professor faraday's lecture. 

man. These mysteries, whether true or false, 
are a stumbling-block to science in its rail- 
road course. It is utterly at fault; and its 
misfortune is not merely that it has been un- 
able to explain, but that in rushing out "to 
inflict a mortal wound on the monster super- 
stition" it has exposed its weakness. It has 
let the unscientific world — my " neighbour" 
and the rest of esteemed-to-be-educated society 
— understand what sort of explanations it can 
give and take, upon occasion. It is od force — 
it is muscular action — it is an emanation from 
the brain — it is boots and shoes — it is the pero- 
neus longus — it is " will," whatever that may 
be. In fact, among all the explanations which 
I have met with, I can find but one which does 
not seem obviously absurd, or which I can 
without qualification adopt; but I am glad 
that, differing on so many other points, I can 
cordially agree with Dr. Elliotson, that these 
strange movements may "result from some 
other cause — from an occult energy 8 ." 

But, be this as it may, it is quite clear that 
an assertion which "finds acceptance in every 
rank of society, and among classes esteemed to 

8 See before, p. 56. 



professor faraday's lecture. 75 

be educated/' cannot be easily, and at once, 
got rid of. A man cannot step out, and put 
his foot upon it, as if it were a spider. Let 
the Professor's testimony be deeply considered 
by every thinking and religious man. If he 
will only keep his eyes and ears open, he will 
find it to be more true, and more important 
than he may at first imagine 9 . 
- But, strangely enough, after this admission 
the Professor suggests that he may be blamed 
for reviving an exploded folly — one which ought 
to be, if it actually is not, forgotten. " Per- 
haps" he says, " it may be said, the delusion 
of table-moving is past, and need not be re- 



9 For instance — I wrote these lines yesterday ; and to-day 
I have received the Record for the day before that (Nov. 28) 
containing among its notices to Correspondents, one beginning 
thus — " A. S. C. is informed that we have no belief in clairvoy- 
ance, the facts asserted from time to time not, in our judg- 
ment, bearing a close investigation." Some persons might 
not have expected that any correspondent of that paper 
would be curious about such matters ; but still fewer would 
have had any suspicion that the Record had been engaged 
ever since it came into existence (of course only as a part of 
its many duties) in such close investigation of the numerous 
cases of clairvoyance that have been alleged, as to be able to 
form a j udgment respecting them. What information may it 
not have collected? Perhaps it could tell us all about the 
bank notes and metal boxes ; but really it never occurred to 
me to enquire in that quarter. 



76 professor faraday's lecture. 

called before an audience like the present — 
even granting this" — but as I am not going to 
grant it, there is no reason for my extending 
the quotation. The delusion, if it is one, has 
not passed away. Proofs of this are plentiful 
and pregnant. I have now before me a news- 
paper containing a letter from Sir David Brew- 
ster to Benjamin Coleman, Esq., and dated 
so recently as Oct. 9th, 1855, in which he 
says ;— 

" At Mr. Cox's house, Mr. Hume, Mr. Cox, Lord Brougham, 
and myself, sat down to a small table, Mr. Hume having pre- 
viously requested us to examine if there was any machinery 
about his person, an examination, however, which we declined 
to make. When all our hands were upon the table noises 
were heard — rappings in abundance ; and finally, when we 
rose up the table actually rose, as appeared to me, from the 
ground. This result I do not pretend to explain." 

It seems that Sir David is more prudent 
than some other philosophers, and does not 
pretend to explain ; but what are we to think 
when we find him placing himself before the 
public as a person who really cannot tell whe- 
ther a table under his nose does, or does not, 
rise from the ground ? Is it on men so grossly 
and avowedly incompetent to judge of plain 
matter-of-fact submitted to their senses that 



professor faraday's lecture. 77 

we are to pin our faith in matters of physical 
science? They will do the seeing, and we 
have only to believe. A sad look-out it is for 
me and my well-meaning conscientious neigh- 
bour ; for though we shall certainly rise a step 
or two in the scale of being from all these scien- 
tific explanations, and discussions, yet the 
things themselves touch us in a very tender 
point. We have to believe, and we do, as far 
as ever we can, believe the philosophers. No 
doubt we believe a great deal on their word, 
which we ought not to believe at all ; but we 
cannot help this. We prefer erring on that 
side, and are quite willing to strain a point 
as long as they put a good face upon it, and 
keep up our courage by assuring us that it 
is all right. At the same time this faith in 
philosophers — especially those dealing with 
physical science — rests on a belief (perhaps I 
should rather say a good-natured assumption) 
that they have some common sense, and, at 
least, an average power of observation. 

It is however more important, and more 
my present business, to follow the course of 
Professor Faraday's Lecture as far as that point 
to which I desire to call attention. I have no 
.wish to misrepresent him ; but, if I understand 



78 professor faraday's lecture. 

the argument which follows a passage which 
I have already quoted \ the matter-of-fact 
question whether a table did, or did not, rise 
in the air should be absolutely settled by the 
matter-of-fact that Newton's law does, or does 
not, permit such a thing. Can the reader 
elicit any other meaning from what follows ; — 

" The parties who are thus persuaded, and those who are 
inclined to think and to hope that they are right, throw up 
Newton's law at once, and that in a case which of all others is 
fitted to be tested by it ; or if the law be erroneous, to test the 
law. I will not say they oppose the law, though I have heard 
the supposed fact quoted triumphantly against it ; but as far 
as my observation has gone, they will not apply it. The law 
affords the simplest means of testing the fact 2 ," &c. 

Now as I understand this (both from its 
own plain words, and from the sequel) the 
alleged fact is to be tested by the law ; and if it 
is against the law, or (I beg pardon, but I 
cannot help thinking of Sir David and the 
table) if it seems to be against the law, it is to 
be put down — so much the worse for the facts. 
But the still more important point, and that 
which seems to me most unintelligible, is that, 
after having stated that, " One exercise of the 
mind, which largely influences the power and 

1 Seep. 72 before. 2 P. 57. 



professor faraday's lecture. 79 

character of the judgment, is the habit of form- 
ing clear and precise ideas ;" — and having made 
one or two observations on that point, — the 
Professor lays down this rule ; — 

" Before we proceed to consider any question involving 
physical principles, we should set out with clear ideas of 
the naturally possible and impossible." — p. 65. 

and at the bottom of the same page the same 
statement (if indeed it ought not to be con- 
sidered as one more comprehensive) occurs; 
for after speaking of the necessary mental 
practice which he recommends, he says ; — 

" As a first step in such practice, clear ideas should be ob- 
tained of what is possible and what is impossible." 

There is much more in the Lecture on which 
I should be disposed to comment ; but lest 
I should be going on a mistaken view of the 
claim which the Professor makes for himself, 
and the first step which he prescribes for his 
pupil, I will at present only add two ques- 
tions which, I think, every Christian has a 
right to ask. 

(1.) Will the Professor define, or explain, 
the distinction between religious and ordinary 
belief? — and 



(2.) Will he teach us how to obtain clear 
ideas as to what is possible and what is im- 
possible ? 

In the mean time I must repeat my con- 
viction that no such distinction exists ; and 
certainly if it could be established in any case, 
that now before us is one to which it could not 
apply. The Professor says very truly, " You 
do not hear of this as a conjuring manoeuvre 
to be shewn for your amusement ; but are 
expected seriously to believe it ; and are told 
that it is an important fact, a great discovery 
among the truths of nature." We are indeed 
— all this and something more. We are not 
merely called on to receive it as a truth of 
nature. It is not content to be shut up in 
the cabinet of science, or only exhibited as a 
natural curiosity. It forces itself upon society 
as a manifestation of spiritual agency, as a 
revelation of unseen worlds, as a new reli- 
gion that is to take the place of effete super- 
stitions, remodel society, and regenerate man- 
kind. This is just where the shoe pinches. 
It must be met as a religious, or an irreligious 
thing. It thrusts its religion in our faces, 
and is shocked at the idea of a conjuring man- 
oeuvre. The Professor goes on to say, " Your 



professor faraday's lecture. 81 

neighbour, a well-meaning and conscientious 
person, believes it." Very true : and another 
neighbour, quite as well meaning and con- 
scientious, tells me that The Wizard of the 
North does things of as strange appearance, 
and as hard to account for, as table-lifting and 
bell-ringing. It may be so ; but does he pre- 
tend to be inspired, and go into a trance, and 
utter " a miserable paraphrase on the Lord^s 
Prayer" as Mr. Hume did to Lord Brougham 
and Sir David Brewster? He does not tell 
us, as Mr. Hume does, that "the manifesta- 
tions, so often scoffed at by professing Chris- 
tians, have done for him" [that is for Mr. Rymer 
u one of the most distinguished Solicitors in 
London" of whom Mr. Hume is speaking] " as 
they have for upwards of twenty-five thousand 
infidels and atheists in America, what no power 
of the pulpit, or doctrine, or evangelical reli- 
gion could ever have effected." 

This may seem to be a great many ; but if 
the rappists of America do not grossly exag- 
gerate their number when they talk of millions, 
it is probably very small in proportion to that 
of professed Christians who have been led to 
reject Christianity and the Bible altogether. 
It is, indeed, not difficult to believe that some 

G 



persons of infidel opinions, or vicious habits, 
may have pursued their experiments until they 
frightened themselves. I have now before me 
a letter, dated as recently as Nov. 28, from 
which, without waiting for leave, I shall take 
the liberty to extract a few lines. The writer, 
speaking of a friend recently met with, says — 
" She has been a good deal abroad, and a long 
time in Paris. We were conversing about 
these spiritual communications ; and, she tells 
me, in France it is carried to a pitch far beyond 
what is known in England. The R. Catholics 
of course condemn it wholly ; but the scientific 
men, who are in a great majority of cases in- 
fidels, resort to it habitually, seeking out new 
discoveries in science, and carrying their search 
to great lengths after knowledge of all kinds. 
One thing she mentioned — that in three or 
four instances the effect has been to produce 
sudden and entire conversion ; such as we read 
of in the case of De Ranee and others ; and 
this from the revelations they have had .... 
By conversion I mean that total change which 
comprises renunciation of all former evil courses, 
and giving up themselves to prayer and mor- 
tification of the flesh, &c. &c I should 

say that these cases of conversion, the three 



or four she named, came under her own cog- 
nizance, and I believe her a person worthy of 
all credit, and mixing in a circle which would 
enable her to know." 

How many may be converted — and what 
they may be converted to — is more than I 
pretend to say. It seems, however, as if it 
must be to something raised on the ruins of 
all that we have been accustomed to consider 
as revealed religion. May we not learn some- 
thing from such a passage as the following 
which I extract from this present December's 
number of a penny periodical which boasts 
(how truly I know not) of the thousands which 
it circulates monthly among our manufacturing 
population. 

" The whole of what is termed the civilized 
world is awfully smitten with the pestilential 
breath of a most direful and malignant super- 
stition, respecting (among other things) the 
fulsome, freezing fabrication of the fall, eternal 
punishments, imputed righteousness, &c. &c. 
This virtue-blighting superstition is both slimy 
and leperous in its detestable nature. It is 
always mute and silent in the presence of 
social murder, commercial fraudulency, public 
robbery, and degrading serfdom ; but it is loud 
g 2 



and clamorous in circulating the horrid viru- 
lent poison which has filled the beautiful earth 
with unmitigated bitterness, cruel antagonism, 
hate prolonging division, crime producing po- 
verty, disease, and premature death ; and con- 
stantly goes on in the name of religion, wither- 
ing all true honesty, independence of mind, 
and virtuous principles ; converting men into 
despicable hypocrites, and loathsome, passive 
slaves" — but enough of this " leperous" and 
" virulent" trash which is given as a spiritual 
communication from Robert Burns and Dugald 
Stewart, and subscribed w r ith their names. 

If the whole matter is a delusion, is it not 
the strangest and most fearful that has ever en- 
thralled mankind ? Whether it is true or false 
can w r e deal with it as a mere fact in Science 
w 7 holly separate from Religion ? Is it possible 
— but let us not be hasty — perhaps, if we 
wait a little, we may be saved the trouble of 
asking and answering a good many questions, 
by getting rules which may enable us to decide 
promptly and absolutely, w^hat is, and what is 
not, possible. 



NOTES. 



Note A, referred to page 18. 

The matter is unimportant in itself, but it is instructive as to 
the way in which such matters are dealt with. I received no 
answer for half a year. But in the number for Jan. 24, 1852, 
(Vol. V. p. 89,) a correspondent, who seemed rather surprised 
at my asking what stories Reichenbach thought he bad dis- 
proved, replied, " Certainly those by which it is said c the 
spirits of the departed wander over their graves ' (Ashburner's 
Reichenbach, p. 177). He shews that superstition to be 
popular in Germany." 

This is, at the best, a sad let down for the glorious Reichen- 
bach. His achievement, if we are to believe this, was the 
destruction of a local superstition, the very existence of which, 
as well as its popularity in Germany, we are to infer from his 
outcry of triumph. But of course it did not meet my enquiry, 
which was ichere to find the thousands of stories (I might have 
added the thousands of frightful interpretations) and I replied 
to that effect in the succeeding number (Jan. 31st, Vol. V., 
p. 115). A correspondent answered in the next number, 
(Feb. 7> ibid., p. 136) but still without meeting my question. 
In the next number, I wrote 

" I hope it will not be thought that I mean to vouch for the 
truth of the stories after which I am enquiring, if it should 
turn out that there really are any ; and also that I shall not 
be thought captious if I am not satisfied with the substitutes 



86 NOTES. 

which are proposed. When your correspondent says that 
Reichenbach's ' system may be advantageously applied to the 
explanation of corpse- candles, illuminated churchyards, and 
other articles of Welsh and English superstition,' I can only 
say that, as far as I understand the superstitions referred to, 
nobody ever thought of connecting them with ghosts. There 
may be stories of c illuminated churchyards,' with ghosts in 
them, of which I have not heard ; but no ghosts are men- 
tioned by your correspondent. I am not laying undue stress 
on a word. If the word ghost means any thing, it means a 
spirit ; and I apprehend that the enlightened Baron will not 
thank any friend who would sink, or explain away, that mean- 
ing. So, I presume, his translator Dr. Ashburner understood 
him, when he triumphantly exclaimed, ' The glorious Reichen- 
bach has, in this treatise, done good service against the vile 
demon of superstition,' p. 180. These words would have been 
too grand for the celebration of such a petty triumph as snuff- 
ing out Welsh candles, and explaining one or two small super- 
stitions of the vulgar. I must therefore again, if you will 
allow me, ask whether any body knows of such stories as 
would really meet what appears to be the meaning of the 
author and translator." 

I am not aware that any thing more has appeared on the 
subject in Notes and Queries or elsewhere. 

Note B, referred to page 24. 

I believe that what I have said in the text is not only true, 
but perfectly sufficient — " as far as I can learn the statement 
is entirely false." At the same time I am desirous to say a 
few words about it for two reasons — first that I may not seem to 
ignore things which some people may consider as giving colour 
to the story, and secondly because I think some of the parti- 
culars are curious in themselves, and tend to illustrate our 
subject. 

The Zoist, No. XIII., contains (p. 140— -April 1846) a 
" Letter to Sir Philip Crampton, Bart., from Dr. Elliotson," 



NOTES. 87 

which begins, " Sir, — You have published a letter, as all 
agree, in the Mail, and evidently with the object of injuring 
mesmerism. You offer a £100 note to any person who shall 
read the particulars of the note and three English words 
written upon a slip of paper on which it is folded ; there being 
also an endorsement on the envelope to this effect." 

Among the "Notices to Correspondents" in the same No. 
of the Zoist, is 

" Sir P. Crampton. His shewy offer runs thus. We copy 
it from the Examiner of January 17th. ' Bank, Henry Street, 
Dublin, Jan. 7, 1846. — In answer to the numerous enquiries 
which have been made respecting the lodgment of a hundred 
pound note in the Bank of Messrs. Ball and Co., to be paid to 
any person who shall, by the operation of mesmerism, describe 
the particulars of the note, I beg leave to say that such a 
lodgment has been made in this bank, and on the envelope 
in which it is contained is the following endorsement : — ; 
" This envelope contains a bank note for one hundred pounds, 
which will immediately become the property of the person 
who, without opening the envelope, shall describe, in the pre- 
sence of Philip Doyne, Esq., and Sir Philip Crampton, Bart., 
every particular of the said note, namely — the bank from 
which it was issued, the date, the number, and the signatures 
attached to it, and who shall read a sentence, consisting of a 
few English words, plainly written, and which is contained in 
the same envelope with the half-note." — (Signed) James 
Dudgeon.' " 

One cannot help observing that what is a note at the begin- 
ning of the statement has become a half-note before the close 
of it. One would think that Mr. Dudgeon (who seems to 
have been the manager of the bank) must have known. 
However, it mattered but little what it was ; for, as far as I 
can learn, it was not meddled with by any of the challenged 
tribe. The next thing which I find is, that, after an interval 
of between five and six years, in the Zoist (Jan. 1852, No. 
XXXVI., p. 370) the letter just quoted is referred to ; and 
Dr. Elliotson says that Sir P. C. tried to test clairvoyance 



88 NOTES. 

" by enclosing, as he said, a bank note in an envelope, which 
bank note turned out, it is said, to be a blank cheque." 

In the next No. of the Zoist (April 1852, No. XXXVII., 
p. 35) the offer of Sir P. C. is again given ; as far as I see 
verbatim as above, and Dr. Elliotson says, " After all, it turns 
out that Sir Philip Crampton did not enclose a bank note but 
a blank cheque, and they say he thought it good fun to substi- 
tute the one for the other," He then gives an extract from a 
letter which he had received from Major Buckley, who was, it 
appears, acquainted with Mrs. Bell (widow of a General of the 
Madras Army) who knew Mr. Dudgeon (whom the Major calls 
the " Manager" of the Bank) and she wrote to him for infor- 
mation. "He says" (Major Buckley reports) "after stating 
that a bank note for £100 was announced to be within the 
envelope, that, the time having expired the envelope was 
opened, and, instead of a bank note, a blank cheque appeared, 
thereby proving, &c. &c." [sic.] After saying that nobody 
applied to see it, he goes on, " the newspaper accounts stated 
that a cheque, not a bank note, was taken from the envelope, 
payable to (Edipus, or bearer ; and that the English words 
with it were c To (Edipus alone.' " 

After this, Dr. Elliotson proceeds ; — "On Major Buckley's 
return to town in February, he found Mr. Doyne's" [qy 
Dudgeon's] "letter addressed to Mrs. General Bell, dated 
Nov. 20, 1847, Dublin." Some extracts are then given. 
The document is called a "bank note ;" and it is added 
"when the stipulated time, six months, arrived, the paper was 
opened, and in lieu of a bank note appeared a blank cheque." 

To this Dr. Elliotson appends a letter from Mr. S. D. Saun- 
ders, dated from " 1, Upper Portland Place, Clifton, Bristol, 
Dec. 19, 1851," in which he states that when he was resident 
in "Ivy Cottage, Syncombe, Bath," but he does not say 
exactly when, he had occasion to mesmerize a boy who worked 
for him in his garden, and who was clairvoyant — that he set 
him to look after this note — that the boy said and persisted 
that there was no note but only a cheque, and that he thinking 
this was mere nonsense, told the boy so and waked him. 



NOTES. 89 

Altogether this story about Sir P. Crampton is so strange 
that it seems best to make no other remark upon it than that 
which my purpose in quoting it requires : — namely, that if 
there was a bank note (which seems very doubtful) it cer- 
tainly was not in a metal box, and what is more to the pur- 
pose, it does not appear that any mesmerist or clairvoyant 
ever came near it. 

The only other case that I heard of through these en- 
quiries, was one in which a clairvoyante pretended to know 
the contents of a gentleman's letter to the Editor of a News- 
paper before it was published. The gentleman, to test her 
powers as well as the honesty of her supporters, proposed to 
deposit £50 with the Editor for the benefit of a charity if the 
writing accompanying it was duly declared, and his offer 
was left open for ten days. The challenge was not however 
responded to. 

The case, however, is obviously irrelevant in our enquiry, 
for there was not in fact any bank note or metal box — no 
deposit, no attempt, and therefore no failure. Indeed it does 
not appear that the patient ever heard of the proposal ; and 
many reasons might dispose her medical attendant to decline 
a wager of fifty pounds by which he might lose and could 
not possibly gain any thing. 



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WORKS 

BY THE 

REV. S. R. MAITLAND, D.D. 



i. 

An ENQUIRY into the Grounds on which the PROPHETIC 
PERIOD of DANIEL and ST. JOHN has been supposed 
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II. 
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in. 
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v. 

The 1260 DAYS, in Reply to the " STRICTURES" of 
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The DARK AGES ; a Series of ESSAYS intended to illustrate 
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x. 

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WORKS BY THE REV. S. R. MAITLAND, D.D. 
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A REVIEW of FOX'S HISTORY of the WALDENSES, 

8vo. Is. 6d. 

XIV. 

TWELVE LETTERS on FOX'S ACTS and MONUMENTS. 
8vo. 6s. 

xv. 

NOTES on the CONTRIBUTIONS of the Rev. GEORGE 
TOWNSHEND, M.A., Canon of Durham, to the New 
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1. On the Memoir of Fox, ascribed to his Son. 2. Puritan 
Thaumaturgy. 3. Historical Authority of Fox. 8vo. 8s. 6d. 

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A LETTER to the Rev. HUGH JAMES ROSE, B.D., 

Chanlain to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury ; with 
STRICTURES on MILNER'S CHURCH HISTORY. 
8vo. Is. 6d. 

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B.D., containing NOTES on MILNER'S HISTORY 
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A LETTER to the Rev. JOHN KING, M.A., Incumbent of 
Christ Church, Hull; occasioned by his PAMPHLET 
entitled " Maitland not authorized to censure Milner." 
8vo. 3s. 

REMARKS on that part of the Rev. J. KING'S PAMPHLET 

entitled " Maitland not authorized to censure Milner," 
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A LETTER to a FRIEND on the TRACT for the TIMES, 
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The TRANSLATION of BISHOPS. 8vo. Is. 

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